X'fP. 



'■omvany M 




Photograph copyrighted H. Schervee 



FORTY IMMORTALS 
Of WORCESTER 
ITS COUNTY 



A brief Account of those Natives or Residents 

who have Accomplished Something 

for their Community or 

for the Nation 




Issued by the 

Worcester Bank & Trust Company WoT...t.r.T 

1920 






Copyright, 1920 

BY THE 

WORCESTER BANK & TRUST COMPANY 



jUN ^ 192? 



Compiled, arranged and printed by direction of 

Walton Advertising y Printing Company 

Boston, Mass. 



FOREWORD 




HE very favorable reception given to "Historic Houses 
of Worcester," the first brochure published by the 
Worcester Bank &: Trust Company, has encouraged 
the publication of the second of the series, and it is a 
pleasure to present to its friends and patrons another 
historic book relating to Worcester and its County. And here the 
officials of the Bank acknowledge their debt to the French Acad- 
emy for the idea which is embodied in this book. This Academy, 
as is well known, is composed of "Forty Immortals." 

Realizing what an important part Worcester County has taken 
in the history, not alone of Massachusetts, but of America, the 
Bank has prepared biographical sketches, illustrated wherever it 
has been possible, of forty men and women of the City of Worcester 
and its County, who have done something worth while for either 
the community or the world, and it has entitled this book the 
"Forty Immortals of Worcester and its County." It has been 
thought best for many reasons to limit the scope of this book to 
those only who are deceased. A paramount reason has been that 
the accomplishment of those living, for Worcester as well as for 
the nation, is not yet finished. 

It is not claimed this list is complete, — far from it; but it is based 
upon a careful consensus of opinion from those who are well qualified 
to make such a selection. If the list selected arouses discussion 
because of some omitted name, the omission may stimulate an 
interesting discussion which will direct attention to other men and 
women who have helped Worcester. 

As the Worcester Bank & Trust Company aims to serve 
Worcester County, it has seemed proper to include in the list men 
and women who were either born in the County or whose work 
gained for them success and fame while living within its boundaries. 

Some of them have been enrolled in the history of the nation, 
others have made an imperishable record for themselves on the 
pages of the world's history, and surely all are worthy of a niche 
in a Worcester hall of fame. 

The Bank sincerely hopes this brochure will arouse even greater 
interest in Worcester and its past, and that it will be found worthy 
of preservation, and through its influence others will be stimulated 
into doing something for their city and county which is worth 
while. 



OFFICERS OF THE WORCESTER BANK & 
TRUST COMPANY 

WILLIAM D. LUEY, Chairman of the Board 
JOHN E. WHITE, Preside^it 

Vice-Presidents: ALVIN J. DANIELS, Treasurer 

HENRY P. MURRAY FREDERICK M. HEDDEN, Secretary 

SAMUEL D. SPURR HARRY H. SIBLEY, Assistant Treasurer 

CHARLES A. BARTON CHARLES F. HUNT, Assistant Treasurer 

BERTICE F. SAWYER BURT W. GREENWOOD, Assistant Treasurer 

WARREN S. SHEPARD FREDERICK A. MINOR, Auditor 

TRUST DEPARTMENT 

SAMUEL H. CLARY, Vice-President and Trust Officer 

DIRECTORS 

HERBERT P. BAGLEY White & Bagley Co. 

EDWIN N. BARTLETT Edwin Bartlett Co. 

ERNEST P. BENNETT Supt. Royal Worcester Corset Co. 

GEORGE F. BLAKE George F. Blake, Jr., & Co. 

CURTIS R. BLANCHARD Capitol Lunch System 

GEORGE F. BROOKS Harrington & Richardson Arms Co. 

ALEXANDER H. BULLOCK Bullock & Thayer 

DeWITT CLINTON Treas. Worcester Gas Light Co. 

JOHN H. COES Pres. Worcester Mechanics Savings Bank 

A. OTIS DAVIS Davis & Brown Woolen Co. 

ALEXANDER DeWITT Kinnicutt & DeWitt 

T. H. GAGE Smith, Gage & Dresser 

GEORGE A. GASKILL Pres. People's Savings Bank 

HENRY JEWETT GREENE Insurance 

JAMES N. HEALD Treas. Heald Machine Co. 

CHARLES H. HUTCHINS Retired 

ALBERT H. INMAN Pratt & Inman 

WILLIAM D. LUEY Chairman of the Board 

CHARLES F. MARBLE Treas. Curtis & Marble Machine Co. 

CLINTON S. MARSHALL Mgr. American Steel & Wire Co. 

PAUL B. MORGAN Pres. Morgan Construction Co. 

ARTHUR E. NYE J. Russel Marble & Co. 

EDGAR REED Pres. Reed & Prince Mfg. Co. 

GEORGE I. ROCKWOOD Rockwood Sprinkler Co. 

WM. H. SAWYER, Jr Treas. W. H. Sawyer Lumber Co. 

JOHN C. STEWART Stewart Boiler Works 

HARRY G. STODDARD Vice-Pres. Wyman-Gordon Co. 

E. KENT SWIFT Whitin Machine Works 

FORREST W. TAYLOR Real Estate 

CHARLES M. THAYER Thayer, Smith & Gaskill 

GEORGE M. THOMPSON Wickwire, Spencer Steel Corp. 

REGINALD WASHBURN Pres. Wire Goods Co. 

CHANNING M. WELLS American Optical Co. 

JOHN E. WHITE President 

MATTHEW J. WHITTALL Carpet Manufacturer 

SAMUEL B. WOODWARD . . Pres. Worcester County Institute for Savings 
ARTHUR O. YOUNG Pres. Claflin-Sumner Coal Co. 

6 



The Bank desires to express its appreciation 
for the many courtesies that have been extended 
in the preparation of this brochure. — To Mr. Lincoln 
N. Kinnicutt; to the American Antiquarian Society, 
and especially to Mr. Clarence S. Brigham and Mrs. Mary 
Robinson Reynolds for their interest and assistance; to Miss 
Frances Clary Morse for permission to use the portrait of Alice Morse 
Earle; to Miss Saidee F. Riccius for assistance in the matter concerning 
Clara Barton; to the Rev. James A. Mullen, S. J., Vice-President of the College of 
the Holy Cross, and to Mr. Timothy A. Shea, Registrar of the College, for their 
courtesy and for the use of the portrait of Father Fitton; to Dr. George O. Ward of 
Worcester Academy for assistance and for permission to use the portrait of Eli Thayer; to Dr. 
Alonzo A. Bemis for the use of the portrait of Elias Howe; to Ex-Mayor James Logan for 
permission to reproduce the portrait of Russell L. Hawes; to the Society of Antiq- 
uity for the use of the portrait of Mrs. Abby Kelly Foster; to the Trustees of 
the Rufus Putnam house in Rutland for permission to reproduce the portrait 
of General Putnam; to the Schervee Studios for the use of the 
portrait of George Frisbie Hoar; to Doubleday, Page & Company 
for the use of the portrait of Andrew Haswell Green; and to 
Mr. Henry P. Murray. Thanks are especially due Mr. 
Benjamin Thomas Hill for aid in the preparation of 
the list of the "Forty Immortals" and for the 
use of several pictures in his fine collection. 




I. Artemas Ward 
2. Rufus Putnam j. Levi Lincoln 



FORTY IMMORTALS 
Of WORCESTER (^ ITS COUNTY 



DANIEL GOOKIN 

(No picture extant) 
Founder of Worcester * 

1612-87 

TO ascribe to Major-General Daniel Gookin the title of Father 
of Worcester would be conferring a compliment well deserved 
and at the same time impart an honor to Worcester which she 
need not feel ashamed of or reluctant to accept," says Ellery B. 
Crane in his account of the early settlement of the town. 
The father of Major-General Gookin, a well-to-do yeoman of England, 
left Ireland, where his son, Daniel, Jr., was born in 1612, and came to 
Virginia in 1621. He planted a Colony at Newport News, where some 
authorities say that he employed as many as fifty servants. After the 
great Indian Massacre, when three hundred and forty-seven whites were 
slain, and Gookin, Sr., was left with thirty-five men to protect his prop- 
erty, the planter returned to Ireland. His son, Daniel, Jr., remained 
in Virginia. Here in 1634 the son received a grant of twenty-five 
hundred acres of land, and served as a Commissioner of the Upper 
Norfolk Court, and as Captain of the Militia. In 1642 he received an 
additional grant of fourteen hundred acres — the same year, in fact, that 
missionaries from the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to Virginia and 
converted Gookin, who shortly afterward with other converts was ordered 
from the Colony. 

The 1st of May, 1644, leaving his plantations in charge of servants, 
Captain Gookin with his wife and little daughter sailed for Boston. On 
his arrival he was admitted to the first church and given the freedom of 
the city. Later he moved to Cambridge and he served in many important 
offices. He was the first to bring to Boston the news of the great Indian 
Massacre of April 18, 1644, during which so many of the Virginia colonists 
lost their lives. 

In 1654, when Captain Gookin made a voyage to England, he was 
well received by Cromwell, who interested him in a Jamaica colonization 
scheme. After abandoning his work in this connection, Captain Gookin, 
as a reward for his public services, was granted five hundred acres of land 
by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and shortly 
afterward he and the Rev. Jonathan Mitchell were given the first licenses 
for a printing-press at Cambridge. As the years passed, Captain Gookin's 
friendship for the Rev. John Eliot increased, and their common interest 
in the welfare of the Indians drew them more closely together. In 1665 
the attention of the General Court was brought to the rich lands in the 
vicinity of Lake Quinsigamond, which Eliot had already visited. A 
committee on which Daniel Gookin served was appointed to view the 
land and to report "whether it be capable of making a village, and what 
number of families may be there accommodated, and if they find it fit 
for a plantation." In the report of this committee made October 20, 
1668, the "good chestnut tree" and meadow land was recommended. 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

The General Court accepted this report and appointed Captain Gookin 
of Cambridge, Daniel Henchman of Boston, Thomas Prentice of Woburn, 
and Lieutenant Richard Beers of Watertown to plan for a settlement. 

After purchasing the land of the Indians for "twelve pounds lawful 
money," lots were assigned, and the actual settlement began in 1673 — 
more than six years after the first survey. Lots were given to Captains 
Daniel Gookin, Daniel Henchman, Thomas Prentice, and Lieutenant 
Richard Beers. Houses were built and then the work suddenly ceased 
owing to the outbreak of King Philip's War. All of the buildings erected 
by the settlers were burned, and Lieutenant Beers was killed in the 
fight. The settlement was deserted. 

A second attempt was made in 1685, and Captain John Wing was 
appointed to fill the place made vacant by the death of Lieutenant Beers. 
On the petition of Captains Gookin, Henchman, Prentice, and Wing the 
settlement was named Worcester. This second settlement was destined 
to be even as disastrous as the first, for, though the accounts of the death 
of Captain Henchman in 1686 and of Captain Gookin in 1687 (both 
having attained the rank of General) are meagre, Indian outbreaks marked 
the years between 1686 and 1713 — the date of the third and successful 
settlement of Worcester. The most tragic occurrence during this time 
was the death of Digory Sergeant, who insisted on remaining in the 
settlement long after his fellow-settlers had abandoned it. He was 
found dead in his house, his wife having been killed after her capture by 
the Indians, and his children carried away by them. 

Major-General Gookin died March 19, 1687, at the age of seventy-five 
years, having faithfully served the Massachusetts Bay Colony for more 
than forty years. His list of writings is notable. In 1674 he wrote 
"Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, of the several 
Nations, Customs, Manners, Religions and Government, before the Eng- 
lish planted there;" in 1677 he wrote an account of the sufferings of the 
Christian Indians during the years 1675-76-77; he also wrote an eight- 
volume history of New England which he left in MSS. and which was 
lost. 



ARTEMAS WARD 

Soldier and Legislator 
ij2j-iSoo 

General Artemas Ward had an eventful life. Schoolteacher, store- 
keeper, army officer, and legislator — every chapter carried with it many 
exciting events which in his peaceful old age General Ward related to his 
admiring grandchildren. He was born in Shrewsbury, Worcester County, 
Massachusetts, November 27, 1727. After his graduation from Harvard 
University, in 1748, he taught school in Groton, and finally opened a law 
office, and conducted a country store. He served as a member of the 
Massachusetts General Assembly, as a member of the Executive Council 
of Worcester County, was appointed a justice of the peace, and in 1755 
was made a Major. He took part, three years later, in the expedition 
under General James Abercrombie against the French and Indians in 
Canada, achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and later of Colonel 
in the Third Massachusetts Regiment. Artemas Ward early expressed 
his sympathy with the cause of the American colonists, and finally, on 

10 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

a day when his townsmen had assembled to tear down the old Shrewsbury 
meeting-house, a messenger arrived post-haste and asked for Colonel 
Ward. The horseman paused and watched Colonel Ward come forth 
from the group of workmen, and then lingered to see the effect of the 
message which he bore in a sealed packet. The haste of the ride and the 
scarlet coat excited the other men, who gathered about Ward as he read 
aloud: — 

"Boston, June 30, 1766. 
To Artemas Ward, Esqr. 

Sir, — I am ordered by the Governor to signify to you that he had 
thought fit to supersede your Commission of Col. in the Regiment of 
militia Iving in part in the County of Worcester and partly in the 
County of Middlesex — And your said Commission is superseded 
accordingly. ^ 

I am Sir, your most ob't and humble serv t 

Jno. Cotton, Deputy Secretary^ 

"Give my compliments to the Governor," said Arternas Ward to the 
horseman, "and say to him that I consider myself twice honored, but 
more in being superseded than in being commissioned and that I thank 
him for this, since the motive that dictated it is evidence that I am what 
he is not, a friend to my country!" 

Amid the jeers of the men, the horseman rode away. And when the 
turbulent spirit of America burst forth they joined Artemas Ward in the 
patriotic ranks. Thereafter their leader was identified with the cause 
of his country. Shortly after Lexington and Concord, Ward was at 
Cambridge directing Arnerican troops. On the 19th of May, 1775, the 
Provincial Congress "Resolved unanimously, that the president be de- 
sired to deliver to Gen. Ward the commission prepared for him by this 
Congress as General and Commander in Chief of the Massachusetts 
forces." He was the first American to receive the commission of General 
under American authority. He remained in command of Boston until 
the arrival of General Washington. _ 

In 1776 General Ward's resignation was accepted by Congress, and m 
that year he became Chief Justice of the Worcester County Court. For 
sixteen years he served in the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1786, while 
he was on the bench, occurred Shays' Rebellion. Trouble had been brew- 
ing for two vears and the first open opposition occurred late in September 
at the Court House in Worcester. A body of armed men had entered 
the town, and made an attempt to stop the session of the Court presided 
over by Chief Justice Ward. On being challenged by a soldier. Justice 
Ward ordered him to lower his musket. The man, who had formerly 
served under General Ward, awed at the command in his voice, did as he 
was ordered. On the steps of the Court House were several men with 
fixed bavonets, and in front of them their commander with a drawn sword. 
Justice Ward ordered that the doors be opened. Bayonets were pressed 
against his breast. He is said to have turned to the armed company, and 
to have spoken in part: — - 

"I do not value vour bavonets! You may plunge them into my 
heart! But while that heart beats, I will do my duty. When op- 
posed to it, mv life is of little consequence. If you will take away 
your bayonets^ and give me some position where I can be heard by 

11 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

my fellow-citizens, and not by your leaders alone who have deceived 
and deluded them, I will speak — but not otherwise!" 

A place was made for the soldier-legislator, and from that hour may be 
dated the breaking of the backbone of Shays' Rebellion. Indeed, men 
who threatened General Ward with personal violence, and who had at- 
tempted the destruction of his home in Shrewsbury, afterwards acknowl- 
edged to him that they were in the wrong. 

Not long after these events General Ward retired to his home in 
Shrewsbury, and there formed a picturesque figure in his old-time costume, 
with ruffles and shoe-buckles. In the fine old homestead that had shel- 
tered him for many years occurred his death on October 27, 1800. 



RUFUS PUTNAM 

Foundc'r and Father of Ohio 



If Ohio is the cradle of the West, as one has said, then the cradle of 
Ohio is certainly the heart of Worcester County. At what has been 
designated as the precise geographical centre of Massachusetts, less than 
a mile west of Rutland in Worcester County, is the house occupied from 
1781 until 1788 by General Rufus Putnam, to whom can be justly attrib- 
uted the founding of Ohio. More than that, he was born in Sutton, 
Massachusetts, not far away. On a tablet placed on the old house by 
the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution are enumerated 
the leading events in Putnam's career. 

His skill as an engineer compelled the evacuation of Boston and later 
protected West Point during the Revolution, and his far-sightedness and 
persistence led to the founding of Ohio. To him also is due the credit 
of the adoption of the Ordinance of 1787, which saved the United States 
from becoming a great slaveholding empire. 

The boyhood of Rufus Putnam did not give promise of the brilliant 
future that awaited him. He was born April 9, 1738. When he was 
seven years old his father died, and two years later his mother married 
Captain Sadler, a tavern-keeper of Upton. Uneducated himself, the 
stepfather denied the ambitious boy all opportunities for an education. 
After he was nine years of age, Rufus attended school but three days. 
Once he saved a few pennies earned by blacking the boots of the tavern 
guests, and with this money bought shot which he used in an old gun. 
He shot partridges and sold them for enough money to purchase an arith- 
metic and a spelling-book. Captain Sadler refused him candles by 
which to study, and so his knowledge of the arithmetic extended scarcely 
to the rule of three — and the speller remained untouched. At fifteen 
he was apprenticed to Daniel Mathews of Brookfield. Mathews, more 
lenient than Sadler, allowed the boy to study nights, andeven encouraged 
his efforts. "It was," says Senator Hoar, "to those winter evenings in 
North Brookfield and the studies by the light of the tallow candle that 
his country owed the ablest engineer officer of the Revolution, and the 
wise, foresighted intellect that decided the fate of America." 

At the age of nineteen, young Putnam enlisted as a common soldier 
for service against the French and Indians, where his experiences smack 

13 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

of Cooper and Dumas. At the close of his service in 1760 he devoted 
much time to the study of surveying, and in 1773 he went with Colonel 
Israel Putnam, Captain Roger Enos, and Mr. Thaddeus Lyman to look 
over Florida lands where grants had been promised colonial officers and 
soldiers who had served in the French War. As deputy-surveyor of 
that province, Air. Putnam and his party brought back a favorable report, 
and several hundred New England families emigrated to Florida. Un- 
doubtedly the Putnams would have been among this number had not 
rumors been circulated in 1774 that the king had refused to issue a patent 
for the lands. 

On the outbreak of the Revolution, Rufus Putnam was made a Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Worcester County Regiment which reached Cam- 
bridge just after the Battle of Lexington. General Washington, un- 
willing to risk another Bunker Hill, determined to fortify Dorchester 
Heights and thus compel the British to evacuate Boston. Putnam, as 
engineer of the undertaking, planned and superintended the construction 
of the line of defence which was raised in a single night. General Wash- 
ington was so impressed by this feat that he made Putnam chief engineer 
of the Continental army. Later Colonel Putnam built the fortifications 
and citadel of West Point. Washington speaks of him as the ablest 
engineer of the Revolution, whether French or American. In 1783 
Rufus Putnam was made a Brigadier-General, and the same year Governor 
Bowdoin appointed him a justice of the peace. He represented Rutland 
in the Legislature, tilled his farm, aided in putting down Shays' Re- 
bellion, and was one of the founders of Leicester Academy. 

Early in 1783 General Putnam became interested in the plan proposed 
by Colonel Timothy Pickering for settling and creating a new State 
west of the Ohio River. General Washington strongly approved of the 
plan, and a petition signed by upwards of three hundred officers and 
soldiers was forwarded to Congress, requesting that bounty lands might 
be located in that section. No action was taken by Congress for several 
years, as Virginia claimed all of the territory northwest of the Ohio 
River. In 1786, however, the Ohio Company was formed, and led by 
Rufus Putnam, then fifty years old, secured the famous Ordinance of 
1787 whereby slavery was forever excluded from the State. The anti- 
slavery clause in this famous Ordinance has been ranked by some his- 
torians with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It 
saved the great Northwest from slavery. Putnam and his forty-eight 
immortals pushed forward in a little galley named the Alayflozuer, passed 
down the Ohio River, and on April 7, 1788, landed at Marietta. Ten 
years later General Putnam was the prime mover to establish at Marietta 
the first academy of learning; there also he organized the first Bible 
Society and Sunday-school west of the Alleghany Mountains. In 1802 
he was chosen one of the delegates to the convention that formed the first 
constitution of Ohio. 

The last years of General Putnam's life belong to the city he founded, 
and there — in Marietta — he died May i, 1824, at the age of eighty-six 
years. Senator Hoar in commenting on the life of Putnam says: "[It 
is] a good, honest, old-fashioned American story. It is a Massachusetts 
story. It is a Worcester County story, although we by no means pretend 
to a monopoly of such things in Massachusetts or in Worcester County. 
We have got over wondering at them." 



14 



FORTY lAIAIORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 



TIMOTHY BIGELOW 

(No picture extant) 
Patriot 
1739-90 

Colonel Timothy Bigelow is one of the most romantic and tragic fig- 
ures in the whole history of Worcester County. He died more than a 
century ago — alone — in debt — imprisoned. To-day he is cited as one of 
the most daring patriots of the American Revolution. He was born in 
Worcester, August 12, 1739, and from his youth distinguished himself 
for his ability to lead his fellows. Like several other famous Worcester 
men he learned the trade of blacksmith, and though lacking the advan- 
tages of an education, he devoted his spare hours away from the forge to 
books, and by the time he became actively engaged in patriotic demon- 
strations, he had gathered a small library. On Worcester Common he 
trained his company of "Minute Men" who responded to the call of 
Lexington, marching from Worcester to Cambridge where their leader 
was promoted to the rank of Major and given command of a division of 
Arnold's army in the expedition against Quebec. Bigelow was captured 
at Quebec, exchanged, and returned to Alassachusetts. After he was 
promoted to the rank of Colonel and placed in command of a regiment of 
Worcester County men, he joined General Gates' army, was present at 
the surrender of Burgoyne, and united with the American forces at Sara- 
toga, Verplanck's Point, Peekskill, Valley Forge, West Point, and in 
Rhode Island and New Jersey. 

Physically disabled. Colonel Bigelow, after the American army was 
disbanded, remained at West Point, and afterwards was given the com- 
mand of the National Arsenal at Springfield. He soon succumbed to ill 
health, and returned home without money and with no prospects for the 
future. His property, already diminished, was sold, and Colonel Bige- 
low, burdened with debt, was imprisoned, February 15, 1790. He died a 
little more than a month later — on March 3 1 — at the age of fifty-one. His 
friend Isaiah Thomas announced his death in the Massachusetts Spy by 
printing a solitary line. 

Three memorials remain of this distinguished patriot: Montpelier, Ver- 
mont, which he founded and named; a mountain in Maine near the head 
of the Kennebec named for him because he had climbed it for purposes 
of exploration when he was with the army of Benedict Arnold; and the 
Bigelow monument on Worcester Common, presented by his grandson, 
Colonel Timothy Bigelow Lawrence of Boston, and dedicated April 19, 
1861 — more than three-quarters of a century after Timothy Bigelow had 
marched at the head of his little company of "Minute Men" to join the 
American army at Cambridge. 



LEVI LINCOLN 

Attorney-General of the United States 
1749-1820 

Levi Lincoln began life humbly — at the anvil. On the day of his 
death, a century ago, he was the acknowledged head of the Worcester 
County Bar, a man who had served his State and Country in innumer- 

15 




I. Aaron Bancroft 
2. Dwight Foster 3. Levi Lincoln, Jr. 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

able capacities, head of a distinguished family, and the father of sons 
destined to play an important part in the history of the Nation. The 
subject of this sketch was born in 1749 in Hingham, Massachusetts. He 
was the son of a prosperous farmer, but, as all boys worked in his day, 
young Lincoln was apprenticed to an ironsmith. His love of books 
was early exhibited, and every minute that could be spared from the 
anvil was devoted to study. After having mastered the rudiments of 
Latin and Greek, Levi Lincoln through his own exertions entered Har- 
vard University, from which he was graduated with high honors in the 
class of 1772. He had every intention of entering the ministry, but it 
chanced that on a visit to the courts he heard John Adams speak, and, 
inspired by the eloquence of the famous patriot, he abandoned his plans 
for the pulpit and decided to study for the bar. While he was preparing 
for his chosen profession in the office of the celebrated Joseph Hawley 
of Northampton, the Revolutionary War broke out, and Lincoln volun- 
teered and served with the army in Boston that eventually caused the 
evacuation of the British troops. 

After choosing Worcester as his place of residence he began the prac- 
tice of law there in 1775, and at once achieved eminence in his pro- 
fession. It is an interesting fact that he conducted the defence of Mrs. 
Bethsheba Spooner — the first capital trial in the Commonwealth, and 
one of the most famous in the annals of American crime. It was a fore- 
gone conclusion when Air. Lincoln took the case that Mrs. Spooner 
would be convicted, nevertheless his genius for argument was exhibited, 
and his MSS. notes were for many years brought forth from time to 
time for reference. Shortly after conducting the defence in this case 
Mr. Lincoln was made a Judge of Probate, and was chosen a delegate to 
the convention that framed the Constitution of Massachusetts. He 
served in the Legislature, and was elected to Congress in 1800. On the 
election of Thomas Jefferson as President, Mr. Lincoln was appointed 
Attorney-General of the United States, an office which he held until 
1805, when he resigned. He was chosen State Councillor of Massa- 
chusetts the following year, and Lieutenant-Governor in 1807 and 1808, 
becoming Governor in the latter year on the death of Governor Sullivan. 
President Madison made him an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, but owing to failing health Governor Lincoln did 
not take the office. 

The latter years of his life Governor Lincoln passed on his farm on 
Lincoln Street, Worcester, in the house that has been removed to Grove 
and Lexington Streets. Agriculture was his hobby, and the classics his 
delight. In 1781 he had married Miss Waldo of Boston, and their sons 
became distinguished citizens. Levi, Jr., succeeded his father in many 
public offices and for nine successive years served the Commonwealth 
as Governor; William was noted as a historian; and Enoch became 
Governor of Maine. 

ISAIAH THOMAS 

Patriot, Printer, atid Founder of the American Antiquarian Society 
174.Q-1831 

Not long after Isaiah Thomas had removed the Massachusetts Spy to 
Worcester, a horseman riding post-haste from Philadelphia to Boston, 
bearing a copy of the Declaration of Independence, paused for a brief 

17 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

rest in Worcester. Mr. Thomas interviewed the rider, with the result 
that a copy of the Philadelphia Gazette containing the Declaration was 
procured, and before the people who had gathered in front of the Old 
South Church, Isaiah Thomas on that memorable day in July, 1776, 
read the document. Later he printed it in the July 17th issue of the 
Massachusetts Spy, then owned and printed by him. This was the 
first appearance of the Declaration in any New England newspaper. 

When Isaiah Thomas was six years of age he was placed as an ap- 
prentice with Zechariah Fowle, a printer of ballads and pamphlets in 
Boston. In all, Isaiah Thomas may have had six weeks at school, but 
he was an apt pupil and loved printing, and one of his greatest desires 
was to go to England, where he might perfect himself in his work. Ten 
years before the outbreak of the Revolution, therefore, he started for 
Halifax whence he hoped to find his way to London. He secured employ- 
ment in the town with one Anthony Henry, publisher of the Halifax 
Gazette, and Thomas, being a far more proficient printer and editor than 
his employer, soon ran the paper by himself. This was at about the time 
of the much-discussed Stamp Act. Thomas removed all the stamps 
from his paper and inserted a notice to the effect that "all the issue paper 
had been used, and, as no more could be had, the paper would in the future 
be published without stamps." This copy of the Gazette reached England. 
The young printer in the meantime desired greatly to go into mourning 
as did the Pennsylvania Gazette, but, not daring to do this, he reproduced 
a picture of the devil in the act of driving his fork into the stamp. The 
consequence was that both Thomas and his employer had to answer to 
the Government authorities for the attitude of the paper, and Isaiah 
Thomas departed for New Hampshire. 

He returned to Boston and entered into partnership with Fowle. In 
July, 1770, he issued the first copy of the Massachusetts Spy. At first the 
paper was published as a semi-weekly. It was of great influence among 
the colonists, and its publisher was placed on the suspected list by the 
Loyalists, and frequently threatened with violence. In spite of this, 
however, he continued one of the active Sons of Liberty, and after meet- 
ings which were held in his office, he frequently printed hand-bills and 
other patriotic matter until far into the night. 

Affairs reached their climax just before the Battle of Lexington, when 
friends of the Patriot-printer, including John Hancock, persuaded him 
to remove his press to Worcester. He was aided in this undertaking by 
General Joseph Warren and Colonel Timothy Bigelow. In Worcester he 
continued his w^ork along patriotic lines. He also did considerable print- 
ing for the Provincial Congress. After peace was declared in 1783, his 
business grew rapidly, and in 1793 the publisher established at Quin- 
sigamond the second paper-mill in the County. He controlled sixteen 
presses, seven of which were in Worcester, and he established five book- 
stores in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire. He printed the 
first folio Bible published in America, and became the largest publisher in 
the country. 

In 1802, his son, Isaiah Thomas, Jr., assumed the direction of the 
business, and Thomas, Sr., devoted his time to writing J History of Print- 
ing in America, and to the founding of the American Antiquarian Society. 
After collecting a large number of books with which to endow the Society, 
Mr. Thomas called together some of his friends, among them Aaron Ban- 
croft, Levi Lincoln, and Nathaniel Paine, and suggested that the Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society be established. On November 19, 1812, it was 

18 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 



organized, and Mr. Thomas elected first president— an office that he 
held until his death, April 4, 1 831, in the eighty-second year of his age. 

Many honors came to him before his death— honors m recognition of 
his liberal gifts to Worcester and of his accomplishment in the world of 
letters. He gave the land on which the old Court House was built, and 
aided in its erection (in 1801) and in improving the grounds about it. He 
laid out Thomas Street, gave the land for a schoolhouse, and helped in 
enlarging Lincoln Square. Many societies honored him: Dartmouth 
College conferred on him the degree of M.A., and Alleghany College that 
of LL.D. Mr. Thomas served as Grand Master of the Massachusetts 
Grand Lodge of Masons. He was at one time one of the justices of the 
Court of Sessions. In spite of the fact that he was born on Long Island 
(January 19, 1749), Massachusetts has always claimed Isaiah Thomas as 
one of her noblest sons, and he properly belongs to Worcester County. 



AAROX BANCROFT 

Clergyman and Historian 

The Bancroft historians— father and son— belong to Worcester. Aaron 
Bancroft's great-grandfather, Thomas Bancroft of Reading, Massachu- 
setts, left a will, and in that will is a clause that might have given both 
of the historians cause for pursuing the interests that they did. 

"My histor}' books," says the document, "to be divided among my 
three sons equally, my divinity books among all my children, not includ- 
ing my bible, Clark's annotations, which I give to my son Thomas. 

Aaron Bancroft was born on a farm in Reading, Massachusetts, No- 
vember 10, 1755. "Sturdy" and "pious" are words that characterize 
the stock from which he sprang. His father. Deacon Samuel Bancroft, 
was one of the ecclesiastical council that dismissed the Rev. Jonathan 
Edwards, though Deacon Bancroft protested against the dismissal. 
From his father Aaron Bancroft may have inherited some of_ the dissent- 
ing vigor that characterized his own ecclesiastical life during his htty 
years' ministry at Worcester. In 1774, Aaron Bancroft entered Harvard, 
and during his first vacation the Revolutionary War broke out and he 
fought at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. He was graduated 
from Harvard in 1778, taught school, studied theology, and, after secur- 
ing a license to preach, went to Nova Scotia for three years as a mission- 
ary. He returned to the United States in 1785, and the following year 
assumed his duties as clergyman. . , ^, , tt7 

He was ordained minister of the Congregational Church at Worcester, 
where he remained for more than half a century— until his death. Some 
years after his settlement in Worcester, Dr. Bancroft became a student of 
the Arminian principles, forerunners of the broader Unitarian doctrine 
that was preached in Boston early in the last century. His_ sermons in 
defence of religious liberty were more or less criticised, and his pubhshed 
pamphlets— thirtv-six in all— were widely read and discussed. He has 
been called no bigot, but a lover of liberty, rational as well as ardent 
His children were brought up to view both sides of a question. One ot 
his children while away at school wrote her father asking what were his 
views on eternal punishment. By way of answer. Dr. Bancroft sent her 

19 




CR- 5= 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

the three best treatises on the three most important theories. At another 
time, one of his daughters read "Dr. Channing's Letters to Dr. Worces- 
ter." When the matter came under discussion she was asked by her 
father if she had not read "Dr. Worcester's Letters to Dr. Channing." 
The girl made some slighting remark concerning the work mentioned by 
Dr. Bancroft. 

"What!" said he, indignantly. "Are you a daughter of mine and do 
you read only one side of the question?" 

In 1807, Dr. Bancroft published his best-known historical work, "The 
Life of Washington." For thirty years he served on the board of trustees 
of Leicester Academy and was for a long time its president; he was presi- 
dent of the Worcester County Bible Society, and of the American Uni- 
tarian Society from its origin in 1825 until 1836; he was a fellow of the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1810 Harvard conferred 
on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. When under fire of the criti- 
cism that assailed his religious beliefs, Dr. Bancroft exhibited great cour- 
age. Indeed, this attribute characterized his whole life. While a stu- 
dent he did not hesitate to face battle — nor in his riper years did any of 
his old-time fire desert him. During Shays' Rebellion troops flocked 
into Worcester and billeted themselves on the residents there. One even- 
ing Dr. Bancroft was told that a company of soldiers was marching up 
the street towards his house. He seized his musket, and stationed him- 
self outside of the door after barring it within. The soldiers demanded 
shelter for the night. Dr. Bancroft refused them admission. "You are 
rebels," he said, "and you shall not enter this house except by violence." 
So sharply did he speak that the company turned and sought shelter 
elsewhere. 

Dr. Aaron Bancroft's death occurred August 19, 1839. 



DWIGHT FOSTER 

Jurist 

Dwight Foster, destined to become one of the most eminent jurists 
of the Commonwealth, completed his course at Brown University at the 
age of sixteen, being graduated in the class of 1774. When he was twenty- 
one he represented Brookfield — his native town — in the convention which 
framed the Constitution of Massachusetts. This office had been given 
Judge Jedediah Foster, his father, whose death occurred in October, 
1779 — the same month that the convention assembled. The elder 
Foster — a distinguished jurist — was a delegate to the first state consti- 
tutional convention, a judge of probate and a justice of the court of 
common pleas. 

Dwight Foster was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts, September 7, 
1757. After his graduation from Brown University he began the study 
of law at his brother's office in Providence. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1778, became a justice of the peace in Providence, and on his 
father's death removed to Brookfield. His appointment to his father's 
place in the constitutional convention of Massachusetts followed. In 
1781, having succeeded his father in many other offices, Mr. Foster was 
made a justice of the peace for Worcester County, and in 1784 Harvard 

21 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts. In 1792 he was 
a Presidential Elector; he received an appointment as special justice of 
the Court of Common Pleas, and as high sheriff of Worcester County. 
He served as a member of each branch of the Massachusetts Legislature 
and was a Federalist member of Congress from 1793 until 1799. He was 
a member of the United States Senate from 1800 until 1803. For a 
decade Judge Foster was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas 
for Worcester County. He served also as a member of the Massachusetts 
Executive Council. 

The Rev. Eliakim Phelps, pastor of the First Church in Brookfield, 
in a sermon occasioned by the death of Judge Foster, which occurred 
April 29, 1823, speaks of Judge Foster thus: "He soon acquired an em- 
inence in his profession, and a share of professional employment, which 
very few, if any, have acquired within the County of Worcester. As a 
counsellor-at-law his opinions were sought and valued perhaps above 
those of any of his competitors. His opinions were made up with care 
and thought, and when once formed, he had seldom occasion to alter 
them. They generally indicated a sound mind, a discriminating intellect, 
a good store of professional and general information, and a happy talent 
in applying general principles to particular cases, and in perceiving the 
precise bearing of acknowledged maxims upon points to be established." 



ELI WHITNEY 

Inventor of the Cotton-gin 
1763-1825 

The story of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, has been 
told and retold; in some instances to exploit his marvellous invention, 
and in others to impress on the American youth the matchless courage of 
the inventor in the midst of adversity. He was born December 8, 1765, 
in Westboro, Worcester County, Massachusetts — the son of a frugal and 
industrious farmer, who appears to have been disappointed in the me- 
chanical genius which his son early exhibited, and whose disappointment 
was later furthered when young Eli entered Yale University. The lad 
while attending the district school of his native town made various things, 
• — a fiddle, a set of kitchen knives, chairs and other conveniences for the 
household. And in order to add to his store of mechanical knowledge 
he toured the county and visited various workshops. In spite of the fact 
that friends attempted to dissuade the elder Whitney from sending his 
son to college, the thirst for a liberal education on the part of Eli finally 
won — and he entered Yale, where he received his degree in 1792. Though 
his mechanical tendencies were constantly exhibited, Eli Whitney de- 
termined to make some use of the education he had received at Yale, 
and therefore accepted a position as tutor in a Georgia family. One of 
his travelling companions on the journey South was the widow of General 
Greene, who with her family was returning to Savannah. On the arrival 
of the young tutor in that city it was found that while he was on the way 
South another man had been chosen to fill his place. Georgia ever 
proved an unfortunate spot on the map to young Whitney. 

The invention of the cotton-gin was brought about in an interesting 
way. Whitney had been befriended by Mrs. Greene, and on one occa- 

22 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

sion, after she had seen some exhibition of his mechanical skill, she enter- 
tained a distinguished group of gentlemen, who deplored the lack of a 
machine that would separate the cotton fibre from the seed. It then took 
one person a whole day to clean a pound of cotton, and the South was 
languishing for want of a means to get its cotton crops on the market. 
"Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, " apply to my young friend Mr. Whitney, 
— he can make anything." So Eli Whitney set to work on the problem — 
and as it was not the season for cotton when he began work, he scoured 
the warehouses of Savannah for enough cotton with which to experiment. 
In a room assigned to him in the Greene house, he began work, making 
even the tools with which he was to construct his model. The inven- 
tion proved a success. In order to perfect his invention he returned to 
Connecticut, obtained a patent, and began manufacturing machines to 
send to Georgia. Disaster upon disaster followed. The State of Georgia 
disputed his right as the inventor, and no less than sixty suits were in- 
stituted in that State before a single decision was given as to the merits 
of his case. The inventor's health was greatly undermined by travelling 
in an open carriage from New York to Georgia to protect his rights as 
the inventor of the cotton-gin. His coolness on these occasions was 
often commented on by those who were following his case. 

Eventually Eli Whitney manufactured arms for the United States 
Government, and from 1798 to 1822 he filled large contracts, and im- 
proved the machinery used in the manufacture of these commodities. 
His litigations concerning the cotton-gin continued until his death on 
January 8, 1825, at New Haven, Connecticut. 



SAMUEL SLATER 

Father of .1 merican Cotton Manufactures 

Worcester County's claim to Samuel Slater springs from the fact that 
he established both wool and cotton mills in Webster, lived a part of his 
life in Webster, and died there. 

Samuel Slater's stock in trade when he came from England to America 
was a complete knowledge of the Arkwright machines, which he carried 
in his head. 

This son of a yeoman of Belper, Derbyshire, England, was born June 
9, 1768. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to Jedediah Strutt, 
who was associated with Sir Richard Arkwright in the manufacture of 
cotton-making machinery. After serving eight years, during the latter 
part of which young Slater was superintendent of the Strutt mill, the 
young man turned his attention to America, where fruitless eiforts had 
been made to manufacture cotton machinery. In a Philadelphia paper 
he read of a bounty of £100 paid by the Legislature of Pennsylvania for 
an imperfect carding machine. Without the knowledge of his family 
he sailed for America, September 13, 1789, and on landing in New York 
secured employment with the New York Manufacturing Company. 

It was while there that Slater learned of Moses Brown's interest in 
spinning-machinery, and he wrote the rich Quaker, saying, "I flatter 
myself that I can give the greatest satisfaction in making machinery." 
At once Moses Brown invited the young man to go to Providence. 

23 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

If Samuel Slater's enthusiasm was high when he left New York, it 
sank to zero point when Moses Brown showed him the machines that 
had been built in Pawtucket, where his mill was located. "These will 
not do," said Slater. "They are good for nothing in their present con- 
dition, nor can they be made to answer." 

"Thee said," replied Moses Brown, "that thee could make machinery. 
Why not do it?" 

Slater set to work and thus it came about that he built the first suc- 
cessful cotton machinery in America, and that Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 
became the cradle of cotton manufacture. So successful was Samuel 
Slater's undertaking that the thrifty Moses Brown, on perceiving the 
great amount of yarn that had been spun the first year, said, "Thee 
must shut down thy wheels, Samuel, or thee will spin all my farms into 
cotton yarn." When Slater sent some of his yarn to Strutt_ and Ark- 
wright in England the product was pronounced as good as their own. 

It was in Pawtucket that Samuel Slater started in 1799 the first Sun- 
day-school in America, carrying its work on in connection with his mill. 
This idea occurred to Mr. Slater one Sunday morning when he heard 
several boys planning to rob a farmer's orchard. 

"Boys, "what are you talking about.?" Mr. Slater asked. 

"Bill wants to go to Smithfield and rob Mr. Arnold's orchard, and 
Nat says he don't think it is right to rob orchards on Sunday." 

"I don't either," said Mr. Slater. "I'll propose something better than 
that. You go into my house. I'll give you as many apples as you 
want and I'll keep Sunday-school." 

Mr. Slater's first cotton machine was put into operation December 21, 
1790. The second cotton mill in Rhode Island was established about 1800, 
and in 1806, when Mr. Slater's brother, John, came from England, they 
built a cotton mill on the site of the present town of Saylesville, Rhode 
Island. In 1812 Mr. Slater built mills at what was then Oxford and 
is now the town of Webster, Massachusetts, adding a few years later 
machinery for manufacturing woollen goods. He had varied interests 
and amassed a fortune. Mr. Slater's death occurred in Webster, April 
21, 1835. 



LEVI LINCOLN, JR. 

Governor of Massachusetts, 1825-34; First Mayor of Worcester, 1S48 
1 78 2-1 868 

The heritage that came to him from his vigorous forebears was nobly 
set forth in the person of Levi Lincoln, Jr., who was born in Worcester, 
October 25, 1782, graduated from Harvard University at the age of 
twenty-one, and admitted to the bar in 1805. In 181 2, at thirty years of 
age, lie was elected a member of the Massachusetts Senate — the same 
year, in fact, that he built the famous mansion in Worcester, destined to 
receive many distinguished guests. In 1814 he was chosen a member 
of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, gaining a wide reputation 
at the time by opposing the Hartford Convention. In 1822 he was 
chosen Speaker of the House; in 1823, elected Lieutenant-Governor of 
the State; in 1824, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court; 
and in 1825 he was elected Governor of the Commonwealth, serving nine 
consecutive years in that office. His retirement was voluntary. Later 

25 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

Governor Lincoln represented the Worcester district in Congress, and in 
1 841 was appointed Collector of the Port of Boston. 

After more than thirty-six years of public life he retired, his last public 
service being for his native city, which he served as first Alayor, in 1848. 
But once did he break the tenor of his private life after his retirement. 
That occasion was in 1864, when Governor Lincoln, then over eighty 
years of age, was chosen a Massachusetts Elector, and cast his vote for 
Abraham Lincoln, whom he greatly admired, and who had been his guest 
nearly twenty years before, in Worcester. 

The retirement of Governor Lincoln from public life did not mean the 
abandoning of labor. He was for many years Vice-President of the 
American Antiquarian Society, a fellow of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, one of the Trustees and President of the Board of 
Leicester Academy, President of the Worcester Agricultural Society, a 
member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of the Board of 
Overseers of Harvard University, where the degree of LL.D. was con- 
ferred on him. Williams College also conferred on him the same degree. 

Governor Lincoln constantly worked for the good of the community; 
many charities, and movements affecting the public welfare, were furthered 
by him. He kept his interest in public affairs until the end of his busy 
life. It is an interesting fact that the year of his birth was the same as 
that of Calhoun, Cass, Van Buren, Benton, and Webster. Webster was 
frequently a guest at the Lincoln Mansion, as were also Henry Clay, 
John Quincy Adams, and Edward Everett. Lafayette was received by 
Governor Lincoln in 1824. 

Four years after Governor Lincoln had cast his memorable vote for 
Abraham Lincoln, his death occurred on May 29, 1868, at the mansion 
on Elm Street, Worcester, now occupied by his grandson, the Hon. Waldo 
Lincoln. It was the eighty-fifth year of his age, and he had faithfully 
served three generations. 



JOHN GREEN, 3d 

Physician: Founder of the Worcester Public Library 
17S4-1865 

For many years Dr. John Green was at the head of his profession in 
Worcester County. His name was a household word. He was more 
than six feet tall, his figure slight and stooping, his face striking, and his 
eye keen and observing. 

"Not to have seen him as under that brown, broad-brimmed, soft hat," 
says Benjamin Franklin Thomas in his Reminiscences of the Worcester 
Fire Society (1872), "he rolled from side to side in that old, time-honored 
gig, through the streets of the village, town, and city, was to have missed 
one of the most striking institutions of Worcester. To have seen him in 
the sick-room, where, seemingly failing to observe, nothing escaped his 
observation, when his calm, quiet manner begat instant confidence and 
trust, when his instinctive sagacity seemed to probe the disease as with 
the keen edge of a lance, was a benediction." 

Dr. Green came of a family of prominent physicians. His father. 
Dr. John Green, practised, and his grandfather. Dr. John Green, was also 
a Worcester physician. His great-grandfather was Dr. Thomas Green 
of Leicester. Dr. Green the 3d was born in Worcester, April 19, 1784. 

26 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

He was graduated from Brown University in 1804 and after studying 
medicine with his father began his practice in Worcester in 1807. 
Twenty years later he received medical degrees from Harvard and Brown 
Universities. During the latter years of his life Dr. Green made book- 
collecting a hobby, and it was his collection of seven thousand volumes, 
afterwards supplemented by nearly five thousand volumes, with which 
he endowed the Free Public Library of Worcester when it was established 
December 23, 1859. On Dr. Green's death in 1865, he left ^30,000 to 
the city as an endowment for the department created by him in the insti- 
tution. In 1867, Dr. Green's nephew, Samuel Sweet Green, became a 
director of the Free Public Library, and in 1871 he was chosen librarian. 
There are many stories told of the eccentricities of this great physician. 
Many of them are amusing; others, inspiring. Still others portray the 
strength and nobility of the man. "In the next generation," continues 
his biographer, "he will be known only by [his] munificence." It may 
well be added that a great physician is for all time. And that Worcester 
County may well honor him who during his long and consecrated life 
ennobled his profession. 



JOHN DAVIS 

Governor of Massachusetts 
17S7-1S54 

For a quarter of a century Governor John Davis served the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts. For nine successive years he was a Represen- 
tative from his district to Congress, for fourteen years he was a member 
of the United States Senate, and for more than three years Governor of 
the State. Three towns in Worcester County may claim him: North- 
boro, where he was born, January 13, 1787; Spencer, where he lived for 
a time; and Worcester, where he studied law and resided during the 
greater part of his life. His former home in the city is still known as the 
"Governor John Davis Mansion." In it Charles Dickens was enter- 
tained. 

Of sturdy New England stock, reared on a farm, his body hardened by 
toil on the land, John Davis had a rich endowment for the public life he 
was destined to lead. He attended the village schools and at sixteen 
became a teacher in one of them. Having earned enough money to at- 
tend Leicester Academy, he prepared for college, and at nineteen entered 
Yale University from which he was graduated in the class of 181 2. Study- 
ing law in the office of Francis Blake at W^orcester, he was admitted to 
the bar in 181 5, and for many years thereafter he was one of the leaders 
of the Worcester County Bar. Without solicitation on his part he was 
chosen on the Whig ticket in 1824 to represent his district in Congress. 
During this period he strenuously opposed the Clay compromise tariff 
bill. He was a splendid debater and an able legislator. In January, 
1834, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, eventually resigning 
that office to again take his seat in the Senate. He achieved some fame 
as an orator, and many of his speeches were published, a million copies 
alone being printed of his speech delivered in 1840 in opposition to the 
subtreasury. He was familiarly called "Honest John Davis." After 
being in the public service for a quarter of a century, he retired to spend 

27 




I. John Green, 31-d. 
2. John Davis 3. John Boynton 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

the closing years of his life in his Lincoln Street home at Worcester, read- 
ing the classics, especially Tacitus and Livy. 

Governor Davis was a contemporary of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, 
whose deaths occurred within a short time of his own. He has been 
compared with these three orators: "If one reads for mere pleasure, he 
will be more gratified with the glowing fervor and sparkling wit of Clay, 
the subtle metaphysics of Calhoun, or the concise and demonstrative logic 
of Webster. But if he reads to gain a detailed knowledge of the question 
under debate, he will find Mr. Davis more instructive perhaps than 
either, certainly more logical than Clay, more practical than Calhoun 
and more minutely instructive than Webster." 

After spending a brief time with his loved classics, in gracious conver- 
sation with his friends, in the execution of the many public trusts con- 
cerning which his advice was sought, in watching over the interests of 
the American Antiquarian Society of which he was then president, and 
in caring for his garden and orchards. Governor Davis succumbed to the 
disease that for some time had threatened his life. His death occurred 
in April, 1854, at his \\orcester home, from which Dickens twelve years 
before had watched the Sabbath break, and the Worcester church-goers 
traversing "the distant thread of road" on their way to worship. 



JOHN BOYNTON 

Founder of Worcester Polytechnic Institute 
IJOI-1867 

In 1865, John Boynton of Templeton set aside $100,000 for the endow- 
ment and perpetual support of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 
chartered May 10, 1865. Among other generous contributors to this 
institution were Ichabod Washburn and Stephen Salisbury. 

"I have long been satisfied," said the founder, "that a course of in- 
struction might be adopted in the education of apprentices to mechanical 
employments, whereby moral and intellectual training might be united 
with the processes by which the arts of mechanism, as well as skill in the 
use and adaptation of tools and machinery are taught, so as to elevate 
our mechanics as a class in the scale of intelligence and influence, and 
add to their personal independence and happiness, while it renders them 
better and more useful citizens, and so more like our Divine Master, 
whose youth combined the conversations of the learned with the duties 
of a mechanic's son, and whose ideas and teachings now underlie the 
civilization of the world." This school was opened in 1868, — the year 
following Air. Boynton's death, — and was one of the first of its class in 
the country. 

Mr. Boynton was born in New Hampshire, May 31, 1791. Until his 
thirtieth year he worked as a farmer, afterwards beginning the manu- 
facture of tinware. He eventually removed to Templeton and in 1846 
retired from active business. He served for a time as a representative 
of his town in the State Legislature, and after closing his business in 
Templeton, removed to Athol, where he became first president of the 
Millers River Bank. His death occurred March 25, 1867, after a long 
ride in a storm from which he suffered great exposure. 

The great Institute which he founded has been a worthy representa- 

29 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

tive of industrial Worcester, its board of trustees a notable one, and from 
it have gone forth men who have been of influence here and abroad. It 
is a fact worthy of note that the founder himself had little school instruc- 
tion — possibly a reason for his wishing to benefit others. "He was 
modest and reserved in his disposition," says one notice of John Boynton, 
"and quiet and orderly in his habits, and he had a reputation for careful- 
ness and moderate thrift rather than for large acquisitions or a philan- 
thropic spirit. He was regarded as an honest, unambitious man, whose 
thoughts and care did not reach beyond his private affairs and his personal 
comforts. His love of concealment was injurious to his acts of individ- 
ual kindness and his general popularity. This disposition was gratified 
in hiding in his own breast the benevolent enterprise to which he intended 
to devote the largest part of his property during his life." 



CHARLES ALLEN 

Chici Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts 

Chief Justice Charles Allen has been called the ablest man of his day — 
not excepting Daniel Webster. And he was as well known as his illus- 
trious kinsman, Sam Adams, whom he in no small degree resembled. 
The beginning of his stormy life was very much like that of any other 
young man of old family and ample means. His father was a clerk of 
the courts, a member of Congress (in 1810 and 181 1), and a public-spirited 
citizen of Worcester. Judge Allen's great-grandfather was Samuel 
Adams, the father of Samuel, the patriot Adams. Charles Allen was born 
in Worcester, August 9, 1797. He entered Yale College in 181 1 — an insti- 
tution from which he was never graduated. Later he studied law under 
Samuel L. Burnside. His literary training is worthy of especial note, 
for prior to his admission to the bar in 1 821 and the beginning of his 
practice of law in New Braintree, the young student familiarized himself 
with English classic poetry, reading the entire fifty volumes of the British 
Poets, and committing to memory many passages from them. He 
thoroughly acquainted himself with New England history, and saturated 
himself with all of its phases, all of which, together with his knowledge 
of the classics, formed a background for his future career. He became a 
leader of the bar at the time when the movement was made to annex 
Texas. And during his entire life he belonged essentially to the Com- 
monwealth, outside of the borders of which he was little known. He 
represented Worcester in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 
1829, 1833, 1834, and 1840. He was a member of the State Senate in 
1835, 1836, and 1837. Judge Allen was appointed judge of the old 
Court of Common Pleas in 1842, at a time when nowhere was the Supreme 
Court of Massachusetts surpassed in ability. During Judge Allen's 
term of office the celebrated Wyman trial occurred when the memorable 
conflict took place between Judge Allen and Daniel Webster, one of the 
counsel for the defence. 

"The story," says Senator Hoar, "is variously related, even by persons 
who were present on the occasion. The commonly accepted version, 
and one which is doubtless in substance correct, is that Mr. Webster 
was quite uneasy under the powerful and luminous charge of the Judge, 

30 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

and rose once or twice to call the Judge's attention to what he supposed 
to be a mistake of fact or law. After one or two interruptions of this 
sort, Mr. Webster rising again, the Judge said, 'Mr. Webster, I cannot 
suffer myself to be interrupted now.' To which Mr. Webster replied, 
'I cannot suffer my client's case to be misrepresented.' To which the 
Judge replied, 'Sit down, sir.' The charge proceeded without further 
interruption, and the jury were sent to their room. Judge Allen then 
turned to Mr. Webster and said, 'Mr. Webster' — Whereupon Mr. 
Webster rose with all the grace and courtesy of manner of which, when 
he chose, he was master, and said, 'Will your Honor pardon me a mo- 
ment?' and proceeded to make a handsome apology and express regret 
for the occurrence." 

In 1858 Air. Allen was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court 
of the County of Suffolk, and the following year he was appointed Chief 
Justice of the Superior Court of the Commonwealth. He declined a 
place on the bench of the Supreme Court. And in i860, on account of 
failing health, he was obliged to decline the position of Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. His life contains many episodes 
of a revolutionary nature — and his relation to the time in which he lived 
is much like that of his kinsman Samuel Adams. He had first of all 
the gift of leadership, and a marvellous power as an orator. An ardent 
abolitionist, he was instrumental in saving from slavery the great terri- 
tory between the Mississippi and the Pacific, and eventually in the aboli- 
tion of slavery. At the same time, justice governed his actions. When 
he was a Chief Justice of the Superior Court, a fugitive slave who had 
escaped on a New Orleans vessel was seized by his master and forced back 
to slavery. In response to the indignation expressed by the people, the 
captain of the vessel was arrested and brought before Judge Allen. The 
question arose as to whether the act had been committed within the 
jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, and it was with great satisfaction that 
the people heard that the case was to be tried before a great abolitionist. 
Justice then spoke through the decision delivered by the judge: "He 
taught the whole people of the country that even a slave-catcher could 
not fail in his reliance on the justice of Massachusetts; and that her 
indignation against what she deemed the worst of outrages, the kidnap- 
ping of a human being, could not swerve her from her obedience to law." 
The man was acquitted on the ground that the offence was not committed 
within the county. 

A memorable event of Judge Allen's life occurred on his return to 
Massachusetts after having served as a delegate from the Worcester 
District to the Whig National Convention which met in Philadelphia in 
June, 1848, after his memorable speech ending with "Sir, Massachusetts 
spurns the bribe!" Judge Allen gave his report in the City Hall at 
Worcester to the multitude that thronged there. As the assembly was 
about to disperse after hearing Judge Allen's passionate attack on the 
Whig party, his brother, the Rev. George Allen, came to the platform 
and moved the memorable resolution which was passed and adopted by 
the Free Soil party as a slogan in its campaign: ''Resolved, that Massa- 
chusetts wears no chains, and spurns all bribes. That she goes now and 
will ever go for Free Soil and Free Men, for Free Lips and a Free Press, 
for a Free Land and a Free World." So was inaugurated_ the political 
party which made the abolition of slavery its cardinal principle. Nor 
did Charles Allen flinch when he faced the most powerful antagonist that 
not alone Massachusetts but America ever produced — Daniel Webster. 

31 




I. Charles Allen 
2. Ichabod Washburn 3. Emory Washburn 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

And his denunciation of the great orator is second only to the poem 
written bv Whittier. He was the personification of the indomitable 
strength of New England even during a great illness that occurred when 
he had served two terms in the Congress of the United States. Washing- 
ton climate did not agree with him, and he contracted there a prolonged 
lung fever. The attending phvsician, a friend of Judge Allen, said that it 
was but a matter of a few hours before the patient would succumb to 
the disease, but the judge in scarcely an audible whisper said, We mil 
see about that," and, to the chagrin of the physician, recovered. His 
death occurred in 1869, in the seventy-second year of his age. 



ICHABOD WASHBURN 

Founder of the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Co., now consolidated with the 
American Steel and Wire Company which is now a constituent company of the 
United States Steel corporation— the largest concern of its kind in the world. 

Christopher C. Baldwin in h'i's'biaiy has an interesting entry con- 
cerning the subject of this sketch, dated May 28, 1829: "Ichabod Wash- 
burn raises his house without anv ardent spirits. ' Believed to be the first 
instance of the kind in New England." But Mr. Baldwin neglected to 
add with what diflaculty this house of Ichabod Washburn s was raised. 
Those were the days when men went to "raisings" expressly for the rum 
that they received, nor is it a great credit to good workmanship that so 
potent was the draught quaffed from the rum-barrels that frequently 
they were unable to perform their tasks, or else so imperfectly did they 
do their work that it was not unusual for the framework of the building 
to fall on its noble supporters. Ichabod Washburn had to canvass 
Worcester to procure workmen who were willing to do without rum, but 
he finallv succeeded on the promise of substantial remuneration. He 
served lemonade, crackers, and cheese to his recruits, who if they 
grumbled did their work well. Their worthy employer thereby estab- 
lished a precedent in New England. He was destined to do other things, 
—to found a great wire concern, and to go down in history as a philan- 
thropist, r 1 -Jir UU 

A century ago young Washburn laid the foundations of the Washburn 
and Moen Companv— not long ago amalgamated with the American Steel 
and Wire Companv. He had set forth to seek his fortune at the age 
of sixteen, walking' from his birthplace in Kingston to Worcester, where 
he secured work at a forge. His apprenticeship and his early lite in 
Worcester are vivid portrayals of the sterling New England grit that 
Ichabod Washburn ever exhibited. He had little money, but even from 
his scanty funds he contributed what he could to various worthy objects 
that engaged his attention. He began the manufacture of lead pipe- 
then scarcely thought of in America. He made the first woollen con- 
denser and long-roll spinning-jack ever made in Worcester_ County, and 
one of the first in this countrv. After manufacturing wire and wood 
screws for some time, Mr. Washburn began the manufacture of iron wire, 
constantly improving his machinery. In 1850 he took into partnership 
his son-in-law, P. L. Moen. The firm of Washburn and Moen in 1869 
was organized with a capital of $1,000,000 and authority to increase the 

33 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

capital to $1,500,000. The output of the establishment was greatly 
increased as the demand was made for telegraph wire and piano wire, and 
the product made here was superior in quality to the English wire that 
had previously been used in America. Between i860 and 1870 hoop- 
skirt wire was made. Higher grades of steel were made. And insulated 
wires and cabled conductors were manufactured in large quantities. As 
the larger demands for iron and steel wire came, the Company increased 
their output in quantity and variety. To-day the concern is the largest 
of its kind in the world. 

The fortune which Ichabod Washburn amassed was liberally given by 
his will to the city of Worcester. When Worcester Polytechnic Institute 
was founded in 1868, Mr. Washburn gave a large machine-shop to the 
Institute. He was a generous contributor to various charitable institu- 
tions. Memorial Hospital stands as a fitting memorial to him. Mr. 
Washburn's death occurred December 30, 1868. 



GEORGE BANCROFT 

Historimi, Statesman, and Founder of the Naval School at Annapolis 
iSoo-gi 

Worcester County men and women are noted for their longevity, and 
George Bancroft, the historian of the United States, is no exception to 
the rule. He lived to be more than ninety years of age, and during his 
last days it was no unusual sight to see the noted man mounted on a 
fine horse and enjoying his out-of-door canters as well as members of a 
younger generation. It has been said that the secret of all genius is found 
in a child's early surroundings, and if this is true, George Bancroft came 
well by his talents. Of a long line of New England clergy and writers, 
his father the noted Aaron Bancroft who served his parish in Worcester 
for more than half a century and who gave to the world an admirable 
Life of Washington, Bancroft the younger from his cradle absorbed a 
literary and cultured atmosphere. When very young he listened with 
eagerness to this and that historical tale told him by his father, and while 
other children romped at their games, Bancroft stayed with his elders 
and frequently took part in discussions of importance. 

George Bancroft was born in Worcester, October 3, 1800. At the age 
of seventeen he was graduated from Harvard University, and an oppor- 
tunity was given him to pursue his studies in Europe. For the next five 
years of his life he studied and travelled abroad, and was honored at 
various European universities. His father had hopes that young Ban- 
croft might enter the ministry; Harvard University had paid his expenses 
abroad in the hope that he might return to the University as a professor. 
As a matter of fact, the young man's plans when he returned in 1822 to 
America were not formulated. He was only twenty-two years of age. 
He preached once from his father's pulpit, but his sermon was a failure, 
and it has been said that his manner was most affected. The subject of 
this sermon was "Love." For a time he was tutor of Greek at Harvard. 
Later with Joseph G. Coggswell he founded the famous Round Hill 
School for boys at Northampton. He became interested in political 
affairs, but declined the nomination to the Senate. 

"I have formed a design," he announced in 1834, "of writing a History 
of the United States from the discovery of the American Continent to 

34 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

the present time." Thus began one of the most important works of his 
life — and George Bancroft now ranks as the leading American historian. 

Followed a period of varied activities: He was defeated for Congress 
in 1835; from 1838 until 1841 he was Collector of the Port of Boston; 
in 1844 he was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, 
but was not elected; in 1845 he was made Secretary of the Navy under 
James K. Polk, and while holding this position Bancroft founded the 
Naval School at Annapolis. It was while he was Secretary of the Navy 
that Bancroft issued the order to take possession of California should 
war arise between the United States and Mexico, and during the absence 
of the Secretary of War he issued an order to General Taylor to march 
into Texas. Frequently the question has been discussed as to whether the 
memory of Bancroft will be longest preserved as the founder of the Naval 
School, as the man who made possible the acquisition of California, or as a 
historian. History seems to give him the most laurels as a historian. 

The later years of his life were enviable. He was courted at home and 
abroad. His position at the Court of St. James gave him a prestige 
abroad. He first went to the Court of St. James in 1846; in 1849 he 
returned to America, where he pursued for some years his work, as a 
historian; in 1867 he was appointed Minister to Prussia; and in 1874, 
at his own request, he was recalled. For more than half a century he 
numbered among his friends men in both hemispheres, and honorary 
degrees were conferred on him by many European and American uni- 
versities. In Washington and Newport, where he made his home in later 
life, he was sought by literary men from all over the world. A great 
lover of roses, his home was filled with them, and on his death, his body 
was literally buried in them. His death occurred at his Washington 
home, January 17, 1891, and his remains were brought to Worcester that 
he might rest with his father and mother, Aaron and Lucretia Bancroft. 

The later birthdays of the great historian were made times of great 
celebration by his friends, and flowers, messages, and congratulations 
were showered upon him. On the occasion of his eighty-seventh birth- 
day. Browning sent him by cable this verse: — 

"Bancroft, the message-bearing wire 
Which flashes my all-hail to-day 
Moves slower than the heart's desire 
That what hand pens tongue's self might say." 



EMORY WASHBURN 

Governor of Massachusetts, iSx^~54 
iSoo-jS 

Emorv Washburn was elected Governor of Massachusetts by the votes 
of the Whig party in the fall of 1853. Mr. Washburn was then in Europe 
and had no knowledge of his election until his steamer touched Halifax 
on the return passage. Though his service in this office was brief. Gover- 
nor Washburn gave to his duties the same care and forethought that 
characterized every act of his life. 

He was born of an old New England family — of yeoman stock. His 
grandfather, Seth Washburn, the grandson of that John Washburn who 
was the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Company, married the 

35 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

grand-daughter of Mary Chilton, said to have been the first member of 
the Pilgrim company to step on Plymouth Rock. Both John and Seth 
Washburn and Seth's son Joseph (father of Emory) served their country 
in innumerable ways. Emory Washburn, the sixth son of Joseph, was 
born in Leicester, February 14, 1800. His father died when he was seven 
years old. It was to the careful direction of his mother, who survived 
her husband for twenty years, that much of the later success of her son 
was due. He was fitted for college at Leicester Academy, and at the age 
of thirteen entered Dartmouth College. In 181 5, when a valued pro- 
fessor at Dartmouth became president of Williams College, he took young 
Washburn with him. Emory Washburn was graduated from Williams 
in 1817 in a class of seven, and immediately began the study of law with 
Judge Dewey and later under Asahel Stearns, then the sole resident pro- 
fessor of law at Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar in 
1821, and began the practice of law in his native town, where for several 
years he served as town clerk. In 1826 and 1827 he represented Leicester 
in the Legislature, and he made there the first report that suggested 
the building of a railroad between Boston and Albany — several years 
before Massachusetts had a single mile of railroads. 

After the death of his mother, Washburn in 1828 removed to Worces- 
ter. He served from 1830 to 1834 as one of Governor Lincoln's aides, 
as a member of the House of Representatives in 1838, and member of 
the Senate and chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 1841 and 1842. 
From 1844 to 1848 he was one of the justices of the Court of Common 
Pleas. After serving as Governor of the Commonwealth in 1853-54, 
Governor Washburn (in 1856) was appointed Bussey Professor of Law 
at Harvard University. He was created Doctor of Laws by both Har- 
vard and Williams colleges. In 1876 he resigned his professorship and 
devoted his time to study at his Cambridge home. He served many 
institutions, and was especially interested in the normal schools of the 
Commonwealth. He aided in the establishment of the Worcester County 
Free Institute of Industrial Science, was a Trustee of Leicester Academy 
and Williams College, a member of the International Code Committee, 
a director of the American Science Association, a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, where he served on the Standing Committee 
for many years and as vice-president from 1874 until his death; he was 
for half a century a member of the American Antiquarian Society, and 
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Dr. Washburn's death occurred March 18, 1878. More than fifty 
books and pamphlets were written by him from 1826 until his resignation 
as Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard University. 

DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX 

Protector of the JVorld's Insane 
1S02-S7 



A noted American once said to Miss Dix, "/ have learned from you never 
to despair.'" Herein lies the secret of Dorothea Lynde Dix's life-work — ■ 
the saving of the world's insane. Unfortunately, even in her younger 
days Dorothea Dix had a frail constitution, but dominating physical 
infirmities was the splendid will and steadfast purpose so often exhibited 
in her grandfather, Elijah Dix of Worcester. A story will illustrate this 

37 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

point. Dr. Dix had incurred the hostility of some of his fellow-citizens, 
and word reached him that a plot had been laid to drive him out of town, 
and that undoubtedly personal violence would be met in the encounter. 
A message came, purporting to have been sent from a sick-bed. It was 
night and a party had placed itself in ambush to await the doctor. On 
being told of the supposed patient. Dr. Dix announced his willingness to 
go, and then in the presence of the messenger he threw open a window, 
and shouted to his servant, "Bring round my horse at once; see that the 
pistols in my holsters are double-shotted; then give the bull-dog a piece 
of raw meat and turn him loose to go along!" Dr. Dix was not attacked 
that night. 

His grand-daughter — the subject of this sketch — in her youth was 
reared by this indomitable physician and his grim wife. And if all that 
was poetic and tender in the child was suppressed, the germ of this tender- 
ness remained later to be shown to the unfortunate. 

Dorothea, though born in Maine and practically reared in Boston, 
began her career in Worcester by opening in 1816, when she was but 
fifteen, a school. Afterwards she returned to Madam Dix's home in 
Boston and there carried on her school work at the little house in Orange 
Court, near the larger Dix Mansion on Washington Street. Between- 
whiles she wrote various books, largely of a poetic nature. In 1823 — a 
memorable year in the life of the young girl — she met the Emersons, and 
came under the influence of Dr. Channing. It was in that year also that 
Dorothea Dix heard of the unspeakable conditions in the jail at East 
Cambridge. She immediately visited the jail and there witnessed the 
neglect of the insane patients, one poor demented woman being chained 
to a stake and left to the care of a deformed black man. Miss Dix 
wrote articles concerning this for the newspapers; she approached the 
Massachusetts Legislature and was influential in procuring an appropria- 
tion for asylums; she next, with the aid of John Quincy Adams, secured 
a bill for providing for the Washington insane. Thus began her career. 
Her influence was felt in the coming years throughout the world. 

Miss Dix states in one of her letters that from June, 1844, until August, 
1847, she travelled 32,470 miles. This trip included Long Island, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, 
and all of the Southern cities. 

"Go to your cells," she wrote in a memorial to the General Assembly 
of Mississippi, "and dungeons of your poorhouses and your jails. In 
imagination, for a short time, place yourselves in the condition of the 
imprisoned, neglected maniac; enter the horrid, noisome cell; invest 
your shrinking limbs with the foul, tattered garments which refuse a 
decent protection; cast yourselves upon the loathsome heaps of filthy 
straw; find companionship, if your drear solitude is ever broken, with 
the gibbering idiot, or the base criminal, the abandoned felon; listen to 
your own hideous shrieks and groans or to the cries and wailings of 
wretches as miserable as yourself; call for help and succor and release, 
for blessed words of soothing and kind offices of care, till the dull wails 
weary in sending back the echo of your moans: then, in recalling self- 
recollection, if the mind is not quite overcome under the imagined misery 
of what, alas! is real, long-suffered distress to others, return to the con- 
sciousness of your sound, intellectual health, and say if any exertions, 
and sacrifices, any labor, any cost, are too much or too great for arresting 
the strong, steady increase of insanity within your borders!" 

Nor did Miss Dix confine her labors to the North American Continent. 

38 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

She visited Europe several times and there brought light to the insane. 
In Italy she had several interviews with the Pope, Pio Nono, who helped 
her to establish a new hospital in Rome. A notable service was rendered 
by her prior to and during the Civil War, when she was made Superin- 
tendent of Women Nurses in General Hospitals. She refused money 
offered for her services, but accepted two large flags ordered made for 
her by the Secretary of War. These she bequeathed to Harvard Uni- 
versity, where they hang in Memorial Hall. 

The last of Miss Dix's life was passed in Trenton, New Jersey, at an 
asylum founded by her and in which she kept an active interest to the 
last. She first saw the light of day in Hampden, Maine, April 4, 1802; 
and she breathed her last in New Jersey, July 17, 1887. 



WILLIAM LINCOLN 

(No picture extant ) 
Historian of JForcester 

1 So 1-4: 

Had William Lincoln, who is best known by his valuable history of 
Worcester, not died at the early age of forty-two, the literary endowment 
of his native city might have been enriched many-fold, for no more inde- 
fatigable literary worker can be found on the long list of writers that have 
given Worcester its prestige in the world of letters. Besides his history 
and many volumes edited by him, Mr. Lincoln left a novel in MSS., called 
"The Legends of Nicholas Tristram, Jr.: A Tale of the Wilderness." 
This story is said to have been written in a cave, bearing the writer's 
name, on the old Lincoln estate, whither Mr. Lincoln resorted when he 
had special work to prepare and was in need of quiet. He devoted much 
time also to beautifying the estate on which he is said to have constructed 
a pond, and to have increased the natural beauty of the grounds by adding 
rare shrubs and flowers. Throughout his life he maintained a keen 
interest in agriculture and horticulture and was a member of several 
societies that furthered these pursuits. 

Mr. Lincoln, the son of Attorney-General Lincoln, and the brother of 
Levi Lincoln, Jr., Governor of Massachusetts, and of Enoch Lincoln, 
Governor of Maine, was born in Worcester, September 26, 1 801. He 
was graduated from Harvard at the age of twenty and admitted to the 
bar three years later. Shortly afterwards he and Christopher C. Baldwin 
began the publication of the PVorcester Magazine, devoted to local his- 
tory, still consulted and valued. All phases of Worcester history claimed 
Mr. Lincoln's interest. When the National jEgis was first published, he 
edited it; he also edited the Journals of the Provincial Congress, Com- 
mittees of Safety and County Conventions (1774-75). In 1835 Mr. 
Lincoln represented Worcester at the General Court, and served as a 
member of the Judiciary Committee. In 1837 his history of Worcester 
was published. Mr. Lincoln's death occurred October 5, 1843. "He 
was profound and learned for his years," said Governor Emory Washburn, 
"the diligent student with his ever-ready fancy and playful wit, the 
genial companion, and the man of taste and letters." 

An interesting anecdote is told by a man who evidently knew Lincoln's 
woods although he might not have been aware of the owner's care of the 

39 




I. Dorothea Lynde Dix 
2. James Fitton 3. John S. C. Abbott 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

feathered folk who inhabited it. "As a young man," he said, "I was 
one day out hunting in Paine's Woods on Lincoln Street, and on my 
way home went into the grounds of Mr. Lincoln with the idea of shooting 
robins that were very abundant about the cherry-trees there. Mr. 
Lincoln came out and in the blandest manner said, 'If you please, young 
man, couldn't you just as well do your shooting somewhere else.'"" The 
youthful huntsman departed, but afterwards asserted, "I had a shot at 
the robins, all the same." 

JAMES FITTON 

1- irst Catholic Prirst of JVorcester, where he laid the foundations for the 
College of the Holy Cross 



Father James Fitton was for many years a New England missionary 
and priest. When the Right Reverend Benedict Joseph Fenwick, second 
Bishop of Boston, founded the College of the Holy Cross, he had a sub- 
stantial foundation on which to build, for Father Fitton during his early 
days in Worcester had purchased a tract of land on Baogachoag, or Hill 
of Pleasant Springs, and there in 1840 he erected a building destined to 
receive young-men students. He called the school the Seminary of St. 
James, in honor of his patron. Eventually the institution was placed 
under the care of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and the building, 
with sixty acres of land. Father Fitton in 1842 presented to Bishop Fen- 
wick, who erected the central building of the College, the corner-stone 
of which was laid June 21, 1843. Twenty-five students entered the col- 
lege the first year. To-day the College of the Holy Cross is the largest 
Catholic college in New England. 

It is not strange that Father Fitton was successful in the varied build- 
ing enterprises in which he was engaged for more than half a century, 
for he once jokingly said: "How can I help being a builder.'' Wasn't I 
born with a mallet.?" Father Fitton referred here to his boyhood in 
Boston, during which he watched his father work at the forge. The 
Fittons were of Welsh and English extraction, and after coming to 
America they formed a part of a hundred Catholics who worshipped in 
Boston early in the last century. Father Fitton was born in a house 
that stood at the corner of Milk and Devonshire Streets, Boston, where 
the Post-Office now stands. He attended the public school and did the 
usual number of chores that fell to the lot of Boston boys at that time. 
Every day before school he drove his father's cows to Boston Common — 
then a pasture — and after school he brought them home. Bishop Chev- 
erus was pleased with the lad's conduct and advised him to study Latin, 
later watching him while he v.^as a student at a New Hampshire academy, 
and of theology in Boston. In 1827, James Fitton was ordained to the 
priesthood. In that year there were less than seven thousand Catholics 
in Boston and in the six New England States but seven priests. 

To enumerate the missionary duties of Father Fitton during the early 
days of his ministry is to tell the story of New England a century ago. 
He endured the hardships of the pioneer, travelling hundreds of miles 
to hold services in remote settlements. His hardest experience came in 
Maine, where early in his career it was learned that the Passamaquoddy 
tribe of Indians needed spiritual help. Father Fitton found their mode 

41 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

of living distasteful and the food served him scarcely edible, but his mis- 
sionary work bore rich fruit for later generations of the tribe. Other 
missionary labors performed by Father Fitton in New England are not- 
able, and especially do his memoirs tell of the kindness with which the 
people received him, of the eagerness of members of his own faith to hear 
Mass, and of the cordiality displayed by the New England folk not of 
his faith, especially those in the Green Mountain district, who frequently 
placed at his disposal their own meeting-house, the village schoolhouse 
or the town house. After spending several years in Vermont and Con- 
necticut, Father Fitton was sent in 1835 to Worcester, where he cele- 
brated the first Mass in the shop of a mechanic of the town, and where 
he preached his first sermon in the Old Elephant Tavern, then on the 
stage route between Boston and Springfield. When the church he 
eventually built had no roof, he celebrated Mass in it. A heavy shower 
came up during the Elevation of the Sacred Host, and three members of 
the congregation came forward and held umbrellas over Father Fitton, 
moving to and fro with him during the Holy Sacrifice. Though the 
congregation was drenched, no one moved to a place of shelter. 

The later events of Father Fitton's life brought to him much of accom- 
plishment and honor. For several years he served as pastor in Provi- 
dence, and the last quarter-century of his life was passed as pastor of the 
Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in East Boston, where he died Sep- 
tember 15, 1 881. "When I come to die," he said, "bury me where God's 
sunshine will fall on me." So they bore him to the Holy Cross Cemetery 
(Maiden), where the sunlight has since shone across his last resting-place. 



JOHN S. C. ABBOTT 

Historian 

John Stevens Cabot Abbott was a member of the famous class of 1825 
at Bowdoin College, in which were graduated Cheever, Hawthorne, and 
Longfellow, and while a student he made his first and last attempt at 
verse-making, competing with Longfellow and winning laurels over the 
future American poet. Abbott was a native of Maine, having been born 
in Brunswick, September 18, 1805. After his graduation from Bowdoin, 
he became principal of the academy at Andover, Massachusetts. He 
was graduated from Andover Seminary, and in the latter part of 1829 
became pastor of the Central Calvinistic Church at Worcester, where he 
began his literary career. 

It was while Dr. Abbott was delivering a series of lectures before a 
mothers' association at Worcester that the idea came to him to gather 
these lectures under one cover. They were published under the title of 
"The Mother at Home." There was a large demand for the little vol- 
umes, in six months alone sales having been made of some ten thousand 
copies. The book was published later in England, and was translated 
into many languages. During Dr. Abbott's forty years' service as cler- 
gyman he occupied eight different pulpits, his Worcester pastorate ex- 
tending from 1829 until 1834. During a serious illness that occurred 
during the end of his Worcester ministry he considered devoting his time 
to writing. His brother, the Rev. Jacob Abbott, had become celebrated 

42 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

as the author of the " Rollo " books, and this gave zest to Dr. John Abbott's 
ambitions. Strange to say, he chose a then much-maligned character 
for the book that brought him an international reputation, the Life of 
Napoleon I. The great French general was judged by English standards 
— and was almost as deeply hated on this as on the other side of the 
Atlantic. But Dr. Abbott studied his subject deeply both in England 
and in France, and then wrote the biography as he actually believed it 
should be written. In the course of his research work he visited Louis 
Napoleon at Paris. 

"Hard writing makes easy reading," was the historian's motto, and it 
is said that he wrote and rewrote whole volumes before their publication. 
He thoroughly mastered his subject before putting his thoughts on paper, 
and no moment was ever too full for him to receive in his study his chil- 
dren or a friend. Though Worcester was not Dr. Abbott's home during 
his later years as minister and writer, nevertheless it has the distinction 
of having been his home when he began his literary career. Besides his 
life of Napoleon, his most famous works are "Napoleon at St. Helena," 
"Kings and Queens," "The French Revolution," "History of the Civil 
War in America," "The Romance of Spanish History," "Prussia and 
the Franco-Prussian War," "History of Frederick the Great," "History 
of Maine," and "The History of Civilization." Dr. Abbott's death 
occurred in 1877. 



ELIHU BURRITT 

The ^'Learned Blacksmith"; Reformer and Linguist 
iSio-yg 

By the time Elihu Burritt was thirty years of age he had mastered 
fifty languages, and this while toiling all day at a Worcester forge. He 
spent his nights alone in a study. He scarcely had a common-school 
education, for he had been set to work as soon as he was old enough, and 
had saved his earnings with the hope of getting an education. The little 
money that he had scraped together was swept away in the financial 
panic of 1837 — and all of the hopes of getting to Europe went with it. 
So Elihu Burritt walked from his birthplace in New Britain, Connecticut, 
where he had been born in 1810, to Boston. The ship on which he hoped 
to take passage had sailed, and young Burritt, hearing of the American 
Antiquarian Society in Worcester, tied up his few earthly possessions in 
a handkerchief and trudged from Boston to Worcester — in order to see 
the wonderful librarj^ where books might be read for the asking. 

He secured work at a local forge where he was given ^12 a month 
wages. Slowly his fame as a linguist spread, until one day a manuscript 
apparently written in Danish was brought to him for translation. Har- 
vard had given it up — and after some difficulty Burritt succeeded in 
translating the strange account of a vessel that had been wrecked on the 
South Sea Islands. The paper proved to be written in the dialect of the 
natives, and Boston underwriters awaited the story which Mr. Burritt 
produced. This and other successes gave the young linguist the courage 
to write to William Lincoln of Worcester, offering his services as a trans- 
lator of German. The communication greatly impressed Mr. Lincoln, 
and he saw that it reached the hands of Governor Edward Everett, who 
read it before a Teachers' Institute, and there gave Burritt the name that 

43 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

has come down in history — the "Learned blacksmith." boston papers 
printed the Everett speech; other papers copied it; and shortly after- 
wards an opportunity came for the young blacksmith to lecture in various 
places. He also was connected with the Christian Citizen, a weekly paper 
published in Worcester, devoted to temperance, self-culture, anti-slavery, 
and peace. This is said to be the first publication in America giving defi- 
nite space to the cause of peace. The idea of international peace took 
possession of Elihu Burritt's mind. So saturated was he with the idea 
that in 1846, feeling that he had a message for Europe, he sailed on the 
Htbernia. His "League of Peace" mission which had taken firm root in 
America was destined to bear rich fruit across the Atlantic. He was 
given a royal reception in England, and the League which he formed there 
was called The League of Universal Brotherhood. Peace congresses were 
held at Brussels, Paris, Frankfort-on-the-Main, London, Manchester, and 
famous names — among them those of Victor Hugo and Carlyle — were 
associated with the meetings. 

The great blow to Elihu Burritt's League came, not in Europe, but in 
America on the outbreak of the Civil War. It seemed to this apostle of 
peace that all of the splendid work done on both sides of the Atlantic 
went for naught. At the close of the Civil War he served the United 
States as Consular Agent at Birmingham, England, the scene of his 
early efforts on behalf of international peace, and while there he was 
instrumental in reducing the postal rates between England and America. 
In 1870 he retired to his birthplace. New Britain, Connecticut, and there 
passed the quietest portion of his life. His death occurred in 1879. 
To-day few know Elihu Burritt as the "Learned Blacksmith," fewer still 
know him as the apostle of international peace, but book-lovers know 
his "Walk from London to lohn o' Groat's" and "A Walk from London 
to Land's End and Back." Burritt stands alone in that he had mastered 
fifty languages. 



ABBY KELLY FOSTER 

Abolitionist and Reformer 

It is impossible to write or eveh'^t6"^hink of Abby Kelly Foster with- 
out associating her with her husband, Stephen S. Foster, and the Aboli- 
tionist movement. The three are inseparable. Husband and wife strug- 
gled long for the cause they believed in, and while their methods — like 
many modern militant reformers — were unique, still beneath the activ- 
ities of the Fosters beat warm, ardent hearts, and wills to suffer and die 
if need be, that the abolition of slavery might be accomplished. 

"My mother," said the daughter of the Fosters, "found it hard to 
like people with whom she differed, but my father loved everybody." A 
story follows illustrating the humor of the great Abolitionist. A slave- 
holder was permitted to speak on the same platform with representa- 
tives of the Anti-Slavery Society. Stephen S. Foster contradicted a 
statement made by the slaveholder. "Do you think, sir," indignantly 
shouted the speaker, "that I would lie?" "Well," said Mr. Foster, in 
his rich, kind voice, "I don't know as you would lie, but I do know that 
you would steal." 

Abby Kelly Foster, of Irish-Quaker parentage, was born in Pelham, 
Massachusetts, lanuary 15, 181 1. She was educated at the Friends' 

45 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

School in Providence, and for several years was a teacher, a vocation that 
she abandoned in 1837, in order to lecture on abolition. After the 
Grimke sisters she was the first woman to enter the lecture field. The 
meetings at which she appeared were frequently stormy ones. A mob 
often stormed places where she lectured, but Mrs. Foster, like her cele- 
brated husband, continued to speak. Airs. Foster was the founder of 
the Anti-Slavery Bugle, was one of the organizers of the Webster Anti- 
Slavery Society, and was one of the first women admitted to membership 
in the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1845 she married Stephen S. 
Foster, whose attacks on the churches which he claimed upheld slavery 
had been long and bitter. His pamphlet "The Brotherhood of Thieves, 
a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy" had caused consid- 
erable agitation. He was frequently carried by force from church- 
gatherings where he had talked, and his terms in jail and the fines imposed 
for public offences were most frequent. In spite of his methods of ac- 
complishing his end, Mr. Foster has been described "as nearly as it is 
possible for a man to be — free from unkind personal feelings." "His 
attitude toward his opponents," continues Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, 
"was always such as once impelled him to say in public meeting, 'I love 
my friend Higginson, but I loathe his opinions.' In his home life, as I 
knew him, this doughty warrior upon evil was the most lovable of men, 
gently lenient to girlish impertinence, and sympathetically disposed to 
the spirit of youth. He was a sturdy farmer of his New England fields. 
'I should hate farming in the West,' he once said. 'I should hate to put 
my spade into ground where it did not hit against rock.' His features 
were as rugged as the rocks he loved, and his hands were hard and gnarled 
with toil. His gestures were ungainly, but his voice was beautiful. His 
eyes were blue and kind, but sometimes there was a look in them as of 
a man bent indeed on going his appointed way in the world, but who did 
not always see a light upon that way." 

Mrs. Foster in many respects was his direct antithesis. About 1850 
she began to take an interest in equal suffrage. She and her husband 
eventually settled on a farm in Worcester, where they refused to pay 
taxes because Mrs. Foster was not allowed to vote. Here Stephen 
Foster died on September 8, 1881. His wife survived him seven years, 
her death occurring January 14, 1887. 

James Russell Lowell has thus described Abby Kelly Foster: — 

"A Judith there, turned Quakeress, 
Sits Abby in her modern dress. 
No nobler gift of heart or brain, 
No life more white from spot or stain, 
Was e'er on freedom's altar laid, 
Than hers — the simple Quaker maid." 



GINERY TWICHELL 

Famous Post-rider, and Proprietor of the Largest Lines 0] Stage-coaches in 
Nezv England 

iSii-Ss 

Less than a century ago, when New England depended on stage-coaches 
for transportation, Ginery Twichell established a record as a post-rider, 
and later became the proprietor of the largest line of stage-coaches in 

46 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

New England. Whatever honors came to him in his riper years, — and 
they were many, for Air. Twichell became president of several important 
railroads and served three successive years as Congressman, — probably 
he will be remembered longest for his connection with early transporta- 
tion in New England. 

Ginery Twichell was born August 26, 181 1, in Athol, where on leaving 
school he worked for a mill-owner and also for a live-stock dealer. At 
the age of nineteen he had charge of a stage-line between Barre and 
Worcester. In those days there was considerable competition between 
rival lines, but the young driver overcame the opposition even of his 
enemies by his inherent good-will and readiness to do a favor. In 1838, 
in recognition of their appreciation, his friends presented him with a 
stage-coach. In time he became the owner of more than two hundred 
horses and of several lines of stage-coaches. Air. Twichell was brought 
to the attention of the public by several remarkable feats in riding. A 
memorable one was a ride which he took in an easterly storm from 
Worcester to Greenfield, a distance of fifty-five miles, and thence back to 
Worcester and on to Boston, forty-five miles farther. During this ride 
he carried despatches destined for the Atlas. The ride that won for him 
the title of "The Unrivalled Express-Rider," wherein Air. Twichell is 
represented as hastening on his journey, in an engraving that was pub- 
lished to commemorate his feat, occurred in 1846, during the excite- 
ment over the Oregon question. Mr. Twichell's biographer tells the 
story: "The leading newspapers of New York were eager to secure 
despatches expected to arrive at Boston by the foreign steamers in 
January, 1846. The Herald made arrangements to carry its own de- 
spatches from Boston to Norwich by railroad, thence by boat to Long 
Island, and across the island by mail to New York City. The Tribune 
and other papers of New York and Philadelphia being excluded by the 
Herald from participating in its arrangements with the railroad and 
steamboat companies on this route, Nlr. Twichell was obliged to use 
horses instead of steam-power for most of the distance. He could obtain 
an engine to run from Boston to Worcester only on condition of its being 
fifteen minutes behind the Herald^s train. From Worcester to Hartford, 
a distance of sixty-six miles, he rode on horseback through deep snow 
in the remarkably short time of three hours and twenty minutes; thence 
from Hartford to New Haven, by railroad, thirty-six miles; from New 
Haven to New York, seventy-six miles, by horses; and reached New 
York City in season for the printing of the despatches before the arrival 
of those of the Her aid J^ 

When Commodore Vanderbilt during the winters of 1840-41 and '42 
requested Air. Twichell to transport passengers from Norwich to Allen's 
Point, Air. Twichell established a stage-line there, never leaving a pas- 
senger behind, and taking care of the freight in a manner that brought 
forth commendation from A/Ir. Vanderbilt. In 1838 Air. Twichell estab- 
lished a stage-line in Worcester, and ten years later he was made assistant 
superintendent of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. The following 
year he was promoted to the office of superintendent. In 1857 he be- 
came president of the same road, a capacity in which he served for a dec- 
ade until his election to Congress in 1866. He also in later years served 
as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company; 
the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad Company; and the Hoosac 
Tunnel and Western Railroad Company. Air. Twichell's death occurred 
in 1883. 

47 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 
JONAS G. CLARK 

Founder of Clark University 
iSi-;-iono 

Jonas Gilman Clark has been called an American of Americans. Of 
sturdy old New England stock, he exhibited a simplicity and largeness 
of heart which makes the true philanthropist, while his modesty — even in 
the years when a large fortune had been amassed — never deserted him. 
It was his custom to mildly boast in his later years that he could make 
any part of a carriage better than any other man he knew. 

Mr. Clark was born in Hubbardston on the first of February, 1815, 
the son of a farmer of independent means. He received a good education, 
and finally selected the trade of carriage-making. After learning his 
trade he opened his shop. Later he entered the hardware business, 
eventually establishing manufactories or stores in the eastern part of the 
State. In the early "fifties" Mr. Clark engaged in the California trade 
and laid the foundation of his fortune in dealing in miners' supplies. 
This fortune he greatly increased during the reconstruction period that 
followed the Civil War, when he made large transactions in government 
securities, and invested in Boston and New York real estate. In 1875, 
having sold his Fifth Avenue home, he purchased another site on Seventy- 
second Street, near the present Lenox Library. On his removal from the 
city he sold this property for half a million. 

In 1881, having selected Worcester as his permanent place of residence, 
Mr. Clark built his home on Elm Street. There he collected a large and 
costly library, and, conscious of the responsibilities of a large fortune, 
he evolved, after extensive studies abroad, a plan for a great university 
where post-graduate courses in higher education and original research 
might be had without going abroad. Thus he founded Clark University, 
purchasing a site for the college buildings in 1887 in Worcester. Eight 
of the leading men of Worcester were invited by Mr. Clark to assume 
the duties of Trustees: Stephen Salisbury, President of the American 
Antiquarian Society; Charles Devens, Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States; George F. Hoar, United States Senator; William W. 
Rice, a member of Congress; Dr. Joseph Sargent, an eminent physician; 
John D. Washburn, former United States Minister to Switzerland; 
Frank P. Goulding, a member of the Worcester County Bar; and George 
Swan, also a member of the Worcester Bar. 

The University, to which Mr. Clark gave an endowment of two millions, 
was granted a charter in 1887 and on October 22 of that year the corner- 
stone was laid. In 1888 Dr. G. Stanley Hall was made president. The 
University was formally opened in October of 1889. Twelve years after 
the opening of the University, Mr. Clark died at his home in Worcester, 
May 23, 1900. 

Hubbardston, where he was born, was generously remembered by 
the philanthropist. But the crowning work of his life, the work that 
absorbed nearly a third of his eighty-five years, is the University — his 
greatest memorial. 

"Broad in its scope," said Mr. Clark, of his university, "liberal in its 
methods, and comprehensive in its teachings, it must of necessity prove 
a powerful instrument in promoting the higher education and fuller 
development of the intellectual faculties of our people. Being placed, 

49 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

as we propose it shall be, in charge of the wisest and most accomplished 
scholars of the day, in several departments of science, literature, and art, 
those seeking to avail themselves of its advantages will be brought in 
close relations with the best thought and most profound wisdom of the 
world and age." 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON BULLOCK 

Governor of Massachusetts, i866-6g 
1816-82 

The father of Alexander Hamilton Bullock taught school in Royalston 
in his youth, kept a country store there, and finally engaged in the manu- 
facturing that brought him a splendid fortune. For five years the elder 
Bullock represented his native town in the Massachusetts House of 
Representatives; he was twice elected Senator for Worcester County, 
was a member of the conventions that revised the Constitution in 1820 
and again in 1853. He was a Presidential Elector in 1852 on the Whig 
ticket, and a trustee of Amherst College. 

The son of this distinguished Worcester County man was born in 
Royalston, Worcester County, March 2, 18 16. He fitted for college at 
Leicester Academy, entered Amherst College in 1832 and was graduated 
in 1836. In later life he served this institution in several capacities — 
as a member of the Board of Trustees, chairman of the Financial Com- 
mittee, and president of the Alumni. Amherst in 1865 conferred on 
Alexander Bullock the degree of LL.D. and the following year Harvard 
University conferred on him the same degree. 

Following in his father's footsteps, Mr. Bullock after his graduation 
taught school in Royalston. He also taught at Kingston, Rhode Island. 
He studied law at Harvard, and he spent the year of 1840 in the ofiice of 
Emory Washburn of Worcester, and was admitted to the bar in 1841. 
Like his father, he was a staunch Whig. In 1842, while serving as an 
aide on the military staff of Governor John Davis, Mr. Bullock became 
the editor of the National ^gis, a Whig newspaper published in Worces- 
ter. Mr. Bullock represented Worcester in the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives from 1845 until 1848, and the county of Worcester 
in the Senate in 1849. It was at this time that his speeches began to 
attract attention, his eulogy on John Quincy Adams in 1848 being a 
masterpiece of its kind. In 1859 Mr. Bullock was elected Mayor of 
Worcester, his term being distinguished by the establishment of a Free 
Public Library, the publication of a history of Worcester, and many 
other memorable events. 

With the approach of the Civil War, Mr. Bullock favored the national 
Republican party, and the election of Abraham Lincoln, also the nomina- 
tion of John A. Andrew as Governor of the Commonwealth. He made 
many stirring speeches at this time, and on the raising of a volunteer 
militia in Worcester he aroused enthusiasm when he asserted: — 

"Under no circumstances will there be a yielding to submission and 
disgrace. Better that the earth should engulf us than to yield our capital 
to the rebels who would seize it." 

On the departure of the Twenty-fifth Regiment for the front, Mr. Bul- 
lock, on behalf of friends, presented to Colonel Sprague a horse, and later, 
willing to stake his wealth for the cause so dear to him, he said: "Bring 

50 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

me your tax-bills and send out the regiment! Every man or woman who 
has anything to spare owes it to the country, this month and next, to 
place a portion of it, at least, in the public stocks. . . . Every dollar in- 
vested for the Government will transcend in appreciation the annals of 
usury; and even if it is lost, it will be riches to the losers, for it would be 
recoined in the wealth and treasure of the heart." 

In the fall of 1861 Mr. Bullock was re-elected to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, becoming Speaker of the House the following January. He 
was re-elected to this office in 1863 by every vote but three, and in 1864 
and 1865 was unanimously chosen. His famous Cooper Institute speech 
was made in New York, November 26, 1861. In January, 1865, antici- 
pating a speedy end of the four years' conflict, Governor Andrew an- 
nounced his desire to withdraw from the Governorship of the Common- 
wealth, and on the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Bullock, after 
being unanimously nominated at the Republican State Convention, 
was elected Governor of Massachusetts, November 7, 1865. He served 
until January, 1869. He was a conspicuous figure in the public life of 
Worcester, where he served as president of the Worcester County Institu- 
tion for Savings, as a director of the Worcester National Bank, president 
of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company, and in various other 
capacities. Though in poor health for some time before his death, 
Governor Bullock's end came suddenly, as he was walking to his home, 
January 17, 1882. "He has left behind him," said the Worcester Spy 
the following morning, "the memory of great trusts worthily discharged, 
of opportunities for usefulness well improved, of a private life honorable, 
beautiful, and without a stain." 



ELIAS HOWE, JR. 

Inventor of the Sewing-machine 
iSro-67 

The sewing-machine was not a chance invention, but the result of 
consistent vision and labor on the part of Elias Howe, Jr., its originator. 
The idea occurred to him while he was employed in Ari Davis's shop on 
Cornhill, Boston, where nautical instruments were manufactured and 
repaired. In 1839 an inventor and a capitalist were endeavoring to make 
a successful knitting-machine. The task proved too much for them, 
and they brought their model to Davis in order to see if he could make 
anything of it. That genius expressed some contempt for the knitting- 
machine, and asked the men why they didn't make a sewing-machine. 
Elias Howe, Jr., then twenty years old, heard the conversation, and his 
active mind seized on the problem and never rested until he had perfected 
the invention. 

Elias Howe, Jr., was born in Spencer, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 
in 1819. His father, a farmer and miller, had difficulty in supporting his 
large family. When six years old, Elias worked with his brothers sticking 
wire teeth into cards used in the manufacture of cotton. Later he helped 
on the farm and at his father's grist mill. During the winter months he 
attended the district school. When Elias was eleven years old he was 
bound to a farmer, but learning that lucrative employment might be 
obtained in Lowell at the cotton mills, he went there and remained until 

51 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

the closing of the mills after the crash of 1837. He then went to Cam- 
bridge and there sought work in a machine-shop. His inventive genius 
was not realized until he overheard the conversation in Ari Davis's shop, 
where he had obtained work after leaving Cambridge. 

For a long time he did scarcely more than reflect on the possibilities of 
such a machine, particularly when looking over heaps of unsewn army 
and navy clothing, and in thinking what a pity it was that so much 
work could not be done by machinery. When scarcely twenty-one years 
old, he married, and the burden of a family did not tend to aid the con- 
summation of the invention he was destined to give the world. 

Worn with overwork and oppressed by constantly increasing poverty, 
Elias Howe, Jr., in 1843 began actively to make a model of the sewing- 
machine. Months were wasted in fruitless toil. By October, 1844, he 
had completed a rough model of wood. In the mean time, his father 
had removed to Cambridge, where he had introduced a machine invented 
by him for cutting palm-leaf into strips for hats. This gave young Howe 
employment. He was also aided by George Fisher — a devoted school- 
mate and friend, who for several years gave the inventor financial aid. 
During the entire winters of 1843-45, Howe worked at his invention. 
In April of the latter year he sewed an entire seam on his machine and by 
May he had completed his work. In July he sewed all of the seams of 
two woollen suits of clothes, — one suit for George Fisher, and one for 
himself,^ — the sewing in both outlasting the cloth. His difficulties had 
only begun, and the success that seemed imminent was very far away. 
A tailor whom he brought from Boston condemned the machine; a public 
exhibition given by the inventor failed to exploit the machine as he wished. 
Disheartened, after a long period Elias Howe, Jr., decided to go to Eng- 
land. He was assisted by his father and brother in the project. Dis- 
couraging as his American experiences had been, England held yet further 
disappointments for him. And finally, so poor that he had not enough 
money to pay for his passage home, he pawned his first model and re- 
turned to New York, where news awaited him that his wife was dying 
in Cambridge. On borrowed money — for he had but half a crown when 
the message came — he purchased a ticket for Massachusetts. 

Elias Howe, Jr., found that in America his patent had, during his two 
years' absence abroad, been infringed. He brought suit against the 
guilty persons, and after nine years of litigation the case was decided in 
his favor. At the expiration of his patent in 1867 — the year of his death 
— his invention had brought him a fortune of more than ^2,000,000. 
And it was said that the sewing-machine enabled the United States to 
keep a million men in the field during the Civil War. In 1919, at Spencer, 
Massachusetts, there was unveiled a tablet at the birthplace of the three 
members of the Howe family who have an important place in the history 
of American invention. Two of these inventors — William and Tyler 
Howe — were uncles of Elias, Jr., the first, the inventor of the truss bridge, 
patented in 1840, and the second, the inventor of the spring bed, patented 
in 1855. This tablet stands two miles south of the centre of Spencer 
Village. 



53 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 



WILLIAM T. G. MORTON 

Dentist, Physician, Discoverer of the use of Ether as an Ancesthetic 
1819-68 

In the Boston Public Gardens, near Marlborough Street, is a monu- 
ment commemorating the discovery of ether. The inscription states 
that it is "to commemorate the discovery that the inhaling of ether 
causes insensibility to pain," and that it was "first proved to the world 
at the Massachusetts General Hospital, October 16, 1846." 

Strange to say, the name of the discoverer. Dr. Morton, does not appear 
on the monument. No reason has been assigned for this, and though it 
will be remembered that long and furious was the dispute concerning the 
discovery, it cannot be for this reason that Dr. Morton's name was omitted. 
He was wont to say that he was "the only person in the world to whom 
this discovery had been a pecuniary loss." Though for years after his 
first demonstration of what Dr. S. Weir Mitchell has called "The Death 
of Pain," Dr. Morton had the satisfaction of knowing that daily relief 
was being brought to suffering humanity. 

William Thomas Green Morton was born in Worcester, August 19, 
1819. He left the public school when very young and removed to Boston, 
where he procured work in a publishing-house. After being cheated by 
the men with whom he was associated, he decided to study dentistry in 
Baltimore. These were days when experiments were being made with 
brandy, opium, and laudanum to deaden pain, and even hypnotism had 
been tried. None had proved successes, and surgeons everywhere were 
obliged to hold their patients by main force while a difficult operation 
was performed. All of these things impressed young Morton when he 
began his study, and the more he thought of them the more time he 
gave to the study of medicine and gases at the Massachusetts General 
Hospital. He tried experiments on his dog. And at one time, while 
etherizing it, the bottle of ether was overturned and shattered, and, 
soaking some linen in the contents of the broken bottle. Dr. Morton 
applied it to the dog's nostrils with the result that unconsciousness 
followed immediately. After that, he began to comb the wharves for 
victims for experiments, often paying liberally a man who was willing 
to submit to etherization. He successfully extracted several teeth, and 
finally asked the senior surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital 
if he might not make a demonstration there. A patient — Gilbert Abbott 
— was suffering from a tumor of the jaw, and Dr. Alorton was allowed 
to etherize him. The operation, performed on that memorable day in 
October, 1846, was successful, and elicited from the senior surgeon the 
statement, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug." 

When the world was informed of the wonderful discovery. Dr. Charles 
T. Jackson, a chemist, demanded that he share in the profits. The 
controversy that ensued between these two men was long and bitter. 
Dr. Morton tried repeatedly to get his invention patented. He was a 
poor man and could ill afford the losses that came to him. The Hospital 
gave him ^1,000, and elsewhere about $600 came in. But he figured 
that he had expended ^187,561. Some wit of the day suggested that 
the two doctors fight out their fight with ether bottles and that the one 
who retained consciousness the longer be declared the victor. As the 

54 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

years passed, several times a bill appropriating to Dr. Morton $100,000 
was nearly passed by Congress. 

The last years of Dr. Morton's life were passed in Wellesley, Massa- 
chusetts, at'"Etherton," on the site of which to-day stands a part of the 
Wellesley Public Librar}-. His death from apoplexy occurred in Central 
Park, New York, in 1868. Each year, on the anniversary of his dis- 
covery, exercises are held at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. 
Morton's name has recently been enrolled in the Hall of Fame, at New 
York University. 

ELI THAYER 

Educator, Legislator, Inventor, Originator of the ''Kansas Crusade" 
1819-gg 

In his youth Eli Thayer worked in his father's store in Mendon, Massa- 
chusetts. Here he was born, June 11, 1819. Not proving a success as 
a store clerk, he worked as a farm hand until an opportunity came to 
prepare for college in Worcester, whither he went, walking the entire 
distance from his home town. After a year's study he presented himself 
at Brown University in Providence, acknowledging that he knew neither 
Latin nor Greek, but that if he were admitted he would "make up" 
these studies. He was as good as his word, and when he was examined 
at the end of a given period, he proved deficient only in mathematics. 
He earned his way through college, doing odd jobs, and during his course 
worked as carpenter, wood-sawyer, and landscape gardener. So frugally 
did he live that by the time he graduated he had saved several hundred 
dollars. 

In 1847, having served for two years as an assistant at what is now 
Worcester Academy, he was elected principal of this institution, where 
he remained until 1849. At this time he conceived the plan of establish- 
ing a girls' school. He built on Goat Hill a castle-like structure that in 
its day was called "Thayer's Folly," but which is now known as Oread 
Castle. At the time when his enterprise assumed every evidence of 
success, Mr. Thayer became interested in political life. He also gave 
much time to the development of Worcester real estate. He studied 
law, became a member of the School Committee, an Alderman, a member 
of the House of Representatives, a member of Congress, and a delegate 
from Oregon to the National Republican Convention in i860. _ His inven- 
tions at this time were numerous, and among them was a sectional safety 
steam boiler, an automatic boiler cleanser, and a hydraulic elevator. 
The latter proved so successful that Mr. Thayer was for some time en- 
gaged in the manufacture of elevators. 

It was Eli Thaver who, after securing private co-operation, proclaimed 
at City Hall in Worcester, March 11, 1854, that Kansas should be made 
an anti-slaverv State. He foresaw the danger of Kansas going over to 
the South, and hence he established in New England the Emigrant Aid 
Society, an organization which was given publicity by Edward Everett 
Hale and Horace Greeley. In 1861 Kansas was admitted as a free State. 
Contemporary with this movement, Mr. Thayer furthered the "friendly 
invasion" of West Virginia with free State settlers. He founded there 
the town of Ceredo, spending $118,000 in its development. In memory 
of his part in the Kansas crusade there was placed some years ago a marble 
bust of Mr. Thayer in the State House at Topeka. Mr. Thayer visited 

55 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

Kansas in 1877, where he was invited to address a meeting of old settlers. 
He was given a royal welcome during this his first and only visit to the 
State he had so vigorously fostered. "I would rather," asserted Charles 
Sumner, "accomplish what Eli Thayer has done than have won the battle 
of New Orleans." 

Mr. Thayer's last days were spent in Worcester, where he died, April 
15, 1899. The services for him were conducted in the great stone castle 
he had built more than thirty years before on Mount Oread. 



CHARLES DEVENS 

Soldier, Orator, Jurist 
1820-91 

In a memoir of General Devens, Senator George Frisbie Hoar has said: 
"To draw an adequate portraiture of Charles Devens would require the 
noble touch of the old masters of painting or the lofty stroke of the dra- 
matists of Queen Elizabeth's day." Senator Hoar probably had in mind 
when he uttered these words Devens's appeal to the citizens of Worcester 
on the outbreak of the Civil War, when he left the case he was trying in 
the court-room, offered himself as a volunteer, and then stirred others to 
do the same; also Senator Hoar may have thought of General Devens 
on the battlefield, or of his entry- into Richmond in 1865, leading the first 
Union troops to raise the Stars and Stripes in the Southern capital. 

Charles Devens was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 4, 1820. 
After attending the Boston Latin School, he entered Harvard College in 
the class of 1838, among the members of which were William W. Story, 
who later became a noted sculptor, and James Russell Lowell. After 
receiving the degree of LL.B. at the Harvard Law School in 1840, Devens 
studied law in the offices of Hubbard and Watts of Boston, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1844. The next decade he practised law in 
Northfield and Greenfield, served as State Senator from Franklin County, 
and as United States Marshal of the District of Massachusetts. He re- 
ceived the latter appointment in 1849, under President Taylor, and dur- 
ing his four years of service the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, and Gen- 
eral Devens was obliged to return to slavery Sims who had escaped from 
Georgia. It is an interesting fact, so distasteful to him was this action, 
that afterwards General Devens offered to furnish the whole sum of 
money necessary to purchase Sims's freedom. 

In 1854 General Devens removed to Worcester, where he formed a 
partnership with George Frisbie Hoar and J. Henry Hill. In 1856 he 
was chosen City Solicitor of Worcester, an office which he held for several 
years. On the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, Charles Devens 
was nearly forty-two years old. For months before war was declared 
he had kept in close touch with events and was well informed concerning 
the conspiracy of the Southern factions, and his mind was filled with 
the conflict that he knew was to come. When the news was flashed 
to Worcester in April, 1861, he asked a lawyer to take charge of the 
case he was trying, and he immediately offered his services to President 
Lincoln. Thousands crowded Mechanics Hall in Worcester the night of 
April 16, when Charles Devens dramatically pleaded that they hear the 
call of their country. Devens was chosen Major of the Third Battalion 

57 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

of Rifles and departed with his men to Fort McHenry, Maryland. Later 
Governor Andrew appointed him to command the Fifteenth Regiment 
of Massachusetts Volunteers, then in camp in Maryland, and destined 
to serve as a part of the Army of the Potomac. 

From the first. General Devens shared the lot of his men, often endur- 
ing exposure and privation to the detriment of his health. "Why, 
Walker," exclaimed one of his men, "what a beautiful man he is! There 
we lay together on the ground, the night so dark that we could not see 
each other, the mud so deep as almost to take a cast of our forms, the 
water at times fairly running over us, hungry, wet, and dirty, and yet 
he talked on in that courtly, quaint voice of his, saying the most delight- 
ful things, witty and graceful and fine, just as he might have done at a 
dinner-table or in a drawing-room. Certainly, he is the most perfect 
gentleman I ever met." 

The Fifteenth Massachusetts fought at Ball's Bluff, where disaster and 
defeat seemed imminent. When hope had all but gone General Devens 
threw his sword into the river, swam to the other side, and there collected 
the remnants of his regiment. For his bravery and coolness on this 
occasion the leader was commended and appointed a brigadier-general of 
volunteers. He engaged in the fight at Chickahominy Bridge, where 
though severely wounded he stayed on the field until the last gun was 
fired. He fought at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville. In the lat- 
ter fight he was again wounded. In 1864 he was disabled because of 
rheumatism, but remained on duty, being carried from one point to an- 
other on a stretcher. Later he took part in the campaign against Rich- 
mond, into which city, on April 3, 1865, he led the first Federal troops. 
He was in command of the Confederate capital until after the surrender. 
In 1866 General Devens was mustered out of service. 

After returning to Worcester, General Devens was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Alexander H. Bullock to the bench of the Superior Court of Massa- 
chusetts; he was promoted to the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court, 
served as Attorney-General in the Cabinet of President Hayes, received 
in 1877 the degree of LL.D. from Harvard, was appointed to the bench 
of the Supreme Court of the State, and became a distinguished orator. 
General Devens's death occurred January 7, 1 891. An event in which 
members of his regiment participated was the unveiling of the equestrian 
statue of General Devens and of the monument to the soldiers of Worces- 
ter County in the War for the Union, in front of the Court House at 
Worcester, July 4, 1906. The present Camp Devens, at Ayer, was named 
after him. 

ANDREW HASWELL GREEN 

Father of Greater Sezv York 
1820-igoj 

The idea of a Greater New York originated in the mind of a Worcester 
young man who for many years adhered to his dream and worked out 
plans for which he was the only champion. There seems to have been 
given the prophetic vision of the seer to Andrew Haswell Green, for his 
dream of a Greater New York when it did come true was exactly as he 
had pictured it since Civil War days. 

The Father of Greater New York — for such is he known to-day — was 
the grandson of Dr. John Green 2d, and a well-known Worcester physician. 

58 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

He was born at Green Hill, Worcester, October 6, 1820, attended Worces- 
ter Academy, fitted himself for West Point, and finally entered the 
service of a New York City mercantile house. After making a trip to 
the West Indies as a representative of the firm that employed him, Mr. 
Green began the study of law in the office of Samuel J. Tilden, whose 
partner he eventually became. Mr. Green was instrumental many years 
later in securing for the City of New York the famous Tilden library. 
His first active participation in public affairs in New York appears to 
have begun with his appointment as School Commissioner on May 13, 
1848. There ensued nearly half a century of public service. In 1856 
Mr. Green was elected a member of the Board of Education. His enthu- 
siasm for New York is voiced in a speech delivered at that time. "Though 
we shall not all again assemble here," he said as he bade farewell to some 
of his associates, "yet we are all citizens of a great city, whose glory is 
our pride, and as we meet hereafter in our busy streets the sympathies 
here implanted will kindle at the remembrance of common exertions for 
the diffusion of that intelligence and virtue which through all times will 
avail more for her extension, adornment, and security than all the walls 
of masonry or gates of brass." 

In 1858, when Mr. Green was appointed a Commissioner of Central 
Park, — an office created for him, involving the executive management 
of the Park, — he set forth his ideas concerning the laying out of the north 
end of Manhattan, and the surveying of the lower part of West Chester 
County. This was but the beginning of the vast undertakings that 
Mr. Green made to consolidate a Greater New York. Bridges built 
under his direction spanned the Harlem River and others; lands in the 
vicinity of Eighth Avenue and 155th Street were laid out; definite plans 
were presented by Mr. Green for drives and boulevards and parks. His 
energy was unceasing, his foresight remarkable. The northern end 
of the city was laid out. Washington Bridge that spanned the Harlem 
has been denominated a monument to his memory. In 1871, when Mr. 
Green was elected Comptroller of the City, he found the finances in great 
confusion. On his own responsibility he raised half a million by apply- 
ing to various banks, with the result that he re-established the credit of 
the city, and helped to quash the famous Tweed Ring. 

In 1880 he was made one of a commission to revise the tax laws. In 
1890 he was appointed by a special act of the Legislature to plan for the 
North River Bridge. The latter years also mark his public espousal of 
a Greater New York and the beginning of the process of municipal con- 
solidation. For seven years Mr. Green aimed to disarm opposition to 
his plan. The struggle occurred on practically every side — between the 
Legislature and the people, between the press and the pulpit. Mr. Green 
was frequently bitterly attacked for his stand. When the consolidation 
had taken effect in January, 1898, a number of public-spirited citizens 
met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and there made plans to celebrate the 
event on the following May 4th, — the anniversary of the founding of 
New Amsterdam. On this occasion General Stewart L. Woodford spoke 
of Mr. Green as the Father of Greater New York, and General James 
Grant presented to Mr. Green a gold medal commemorating his services 
on behalf of the city. 

The work of the Father of Greater New York, after thirty years of 
constant effort, was but begun. He was influential in planning for the 
Zoological Gardens, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum 
of Natural History. To his native city — Worcester — Mr. Green gave a 

59 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

library and a hospital. Green Hill Park, containing five hundred acres, 
is a daily reminder of the generosity of this great son of Worcester. The 
life of Mr. Green was cut short suddenly on November 13, 1903, when 
an insane negro, mistaking him for one who had wronged him, shot him 
near his New York City home. 

His remains were brought to the rural cemetery in Worcester, where 
recently, on October 6, 1920, was observed the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of his birth. Mayor Peter F. Sullivan, on this occasion, after plac- 
ing a wreath on Andrew Green's grave, said in part: "He spread the name 
of his native city through his great work in fostering the plan for Greater 
New York. We are gathered here to-day to balance in a measure his 
efforts on behalf of Worcester, and to let the Nation, and Greater New 
York especially, know that the Heart of the Commonwealth produces 
and has produced some of the greatest characters in these United States." 



CLARA BARTON 

Founder of the American Red Cross 
i82i-igi2 

America's foremost woman — the "Angel of the Battlefield" — was born 
in Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on Christmas Day, 1821. 
For half a century she was the world's leading figure in relieving the 
suffering of the thousands who fought on the fields of battle. She be- 
came the friend and counsellor of Abraham Lincoln, of Ulysses S. Grant, 
of James A. Garfield, of Hayes, Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley. 
From the crowned heads of Europe she received homage that royalty 
might envy. When, according to the custom, she bent to kiss the hand 
of the Czar of Russia, he quickly raised his hand and said, "Nay, Miss 
Barton, not that from you!" Clara Barton was perhaps the most per- 
fect incarnation of mercy that the modern world has known, and the 
founder of the greatest humanitarian movement in the history of nations. 

Preceded by the scarlet cross, Clara Barton went to Washington during 
the Civil War and there — the first woman to render aid to the Union 
soldiers — visited the hospitals and brought relief to the wounded. Day 
after day she went down to the wharves, where, with the mud and gore 
of Chickahominy still clinging to them, were brought the boys in blue 
and in gray. Then came the eventful Sunday in September, 1862, when 
she loaded an army wagon with supplies and started out alone in the 
wake of General McClellan's army. She caught up with McClellan at 
Antietam and took her place in the swift train of artillery. At a large 
barn near a cornfield close to the battle-line she made her headquarters, 
where the Confederate shells fell thick and fast, and the cornfield was 
filled with wounded. The army surgeons ran out of dressings, and 
endeavored to make corn-husks do. It was then that Miss Barton 
opened her supply-case and brought out what was needed. "I have 
everything," was her quiet remark. She rounded up twenty-five men who 
had come to the rear with the wounded and set them to work administer- 
ing restoratives. When her bread and broth were spent, she used a liquor 
supply that she carried. Darkness fell over the bloody field of battle, 
and still men remained who had not been relieved. "Five hundred 

61 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

men," cried the head surgeon, dropping his head on his arms, "will die 
before daybreak unless they have attention, and I have no lights!" 

"Get up, doctor," said Miss Barton. "I have brought plenty of 
lanterns this time. The men will be here in a few minutes to light the 
house. You will have abundance of light and all the help you want." 
And she led him to the door and showed him how she had arranged lanterns 
for the work that lay before them. So the candles of her love and pity 
lighted the blood-stained fields of Antietam and Fredericksburg. It 
has been said that she bore a charmed life, for though her clothing was 
often grazed she was never wounded. At the close of the Civil War she 
organized the bureau to locate missing men or find their burial places. 

On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Miss Barton went abroad, 
where she aided in caring for the wounded, and where afterwards she 
received many decorations and recognitions of her services. The Grand 
Duke and Duchess of Baden, the Queens of Serbia, Italy, and England, 
the Empress of Germany, and the Prince of Jerusalem all joined in their 
thanks for her devotion to the wounded. During the summer of 1877 
Miss Barton endeavored to get the Red Cross convention signed by the 
Government, but it was not until 1881 that she succeeded. In May of 
that year the American Association of the Red Cross was formed, and 
President Garfield made her president for life. She continued in this 
office until 1904, when President Roosevelt conceived the idea of making 
the Red Cross a military branch of the Government. It was then that 
Miss Barton resigned. In 1892 she sent representatives to Russia where, 
following her experiences in alleviating suffering during the Johnstown 
flood, she helped to relieve the famine. In 1896 she aided Armenia 
after Turkish ravages. After the battle of Santiago was fought in 1898 
the entire American Navy made way for her relief ship. In command of 
this first ship to enter the harbor after the capture of Santiago, Miss 
Barton entered the town with food and other necessities. Her last work 
of national importance was in connection with the Galveston flood of 
1900. 

She lived to be ninety years old. And from her home overlooking the 
fair Potomac she passed her last years — a shadowy figure that moved 
through the gardens of Glen Echo, a pitying sweetness in her eyes, 
and a frequent word of forgiveness to the Nation that had taken from 
her the staff that had borne aloft for more than a half-century the banner 
of the Red Cross. A slight stoop was evident in the shoulders that had 
bent above so many sick-beds, but the fine dark hair, save for silver lights 
above the ears, remained dark to the end. Miss Barton died at Glen 
Echo, April 12, 191 2. There was in that year considerable dissatisfac- 
tion that her remains were not interred in the National Cemetery at 
Arlington, but Oxford received the body and did it great homage — as 
did all the world. 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

Clergyman and Author 



Edward Everett Hale spent an important decade of his life in Worcester, 
where in 1846 he was ordained to the ministry, became pastor of the 
newly founded Church of the Unity, and remained there until 1856. 
He had previously spent a winter in Washington, where he preached. 

62 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

After his resignation from the Worcester church he became pastor of the 
South Congregational Church of Boston, serving as minister and minister- 
emeritus until his death. Samuel Bowles once said that they had spoiled 
the best newspaper man of his day by making a minister of Edward Hale, 
and Dr. Hale himself was wont to claim that he was cradled in the Boston 
Advertiser, owned by his father, a newspaper on which he had served in 
every department from typesetting to the editorial chair. 

He was born in Boston, April 3, 1822, his father being a leading Boston 
citizen, and an authority on financial affairs, as well as a promoter of 
the first railroads in America. Edward Hale entered the Boston Latin 
School when he was nine years old, and at the age of thirteen entered 
Harvard. For a time after his graduation from college he taught at the 
Boston Latin School and worked on his father's paper, devoting his spare 
time to studying for the ministry. 

During the decade spent by Dr. Hale in Worcester he interested him- 
self in the great public movements of the day. He was a promoter of 
the Kansas Crusade; he advocated the Civil Service Reform for several 
years before it became a law; he was among the pioneer champions for 
the establishing of an international court to insure world peace. The 
immigrant, the negro, and the Indian, all found a friend in Edward 
Everett Hale. His Worcester connections were many, and friendships 
made there were cherished as long as he lived. Senator George Frisbie 
Hoar, then just settled in Worcester, was among this number. 

While in Worcester, Dr. Hale, until he established his own home, lived 
with Mr. and Mrs. Moses Phillips. When Dr. Hale was asked to serve on 
the School Committee of Worcester, he replied that he had far rather 
serve on the Board of Overseers of the Poor — and was given a place on 
that board. This demonstrates his interest in those less fortunate — an 
interest that was ever close to him. Dr. Hale was a member of the 
American Antiquarian Society for upwards of seventy years — until his 
death. He was one of the founders of the Natural History Society and 
the Worcester Public Library. 

In addition to his work as minister Dr. Hale edited the Christian 
Examiner and the Sunday School Gazette. A list of the special articles 
written by him for magazines would fill a small volume. In the world 
of authors he is best known by "The Man Without a Country," though 
Dr. Hale wished that "In His Name" might represent him, as he felt that 
it more fully expressed what he had to say to the world. By others, 
"Ten Times One" is considered a more characteristic work than either. 
The plan of this story was in his mind while he was a minister in Worces- 
ter, and was later developed, when, convinced that thousands of individ- 
uals could work together for the good of the world. Dr. Hale founded 
the "Lend a Hand" movement, which later became world-wide in its 
influence. The idea had been in his mind for many years. The move- 
ment was started in 1870, organized informally in 1886, and incorporated 
in 1 891. The motto adopted by this society became a well-known 
slogan: — 

"Look up and not down, 
Look forward and not back, 
Look out and not in, and 
Lend a hand!" 

Dr. Hale's long and fruitful career in public service was relieved by 
frequent trips abroad. In 1898 he resigned his pastorate of the South 

63 




I. Edward Everett Hale 
2. Russell L. Hawes 3. George Crompton 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 



Congregational Church of Boston, and as it was his habit to spend a part 
of each winter in Washington he accepted the office of Chaplain of the 
Senate, his friend Senator Hoar having long urged him to serve in this 
capacity. In 1909 he returned to his Highland Street home in Roxbury, 
Massachusetts, and there during the spring and early summer days he 
wrote and received his friends. His death occurred June 10, 1909, at 
the advanced age of eighty-seven years. 



RUSSELL L. HAWES 

Inventor 
1823-67 

Dr. Russell L. Hawes, who revolutionized the manufacture of envelopes 
in America, was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, March 22, 1823. 
In his youth, unlike Eli Whitney, he displayed no decided mechanical 
genius, so it was decided that he should take up some profession. Medi- 
cine was chosen, and Dr. Hawes was graduated from the Harvard Medical 
School in 1845. He began practice in Worcester, and became almost 
immediately interested in the envelope industry — then in its infancy. 
Dr. Hawes entered the employ of Goddard, Rice and Company, Worces- 
ter manufacturers of paper-making machinery. Desiring to perfect his 
plan for an envelope-making machine. Dr. Hawes visited New York and 
there saw what were said to be the first hand-made envelopes made in 
this country, an accomplishment credited to Karcheski, a Pole, said to 
be the first to make hand-made envelopes here. 

Dr. Hawes represented his company abroad, and while in Europe saw 
an envelope-folding machine in operation. On his return to Worcester 
he built the first practical commercial envelope-folding machine, a patent 
(the third of its kind issued in America) for which was issued January 
21, 1853. The output of this machine was sold to Jonathan Grout, a 
Worcester paper and stationery dealer. The inventor established an 
envelope factory of his own on Grafton Street. He felt that he had 
reached the maximum speed when his machine turned out daily from 
10,000 to 12,500 envelopes, but, as Colonel James Logan in his admirable 
"Story of the Envelope" has pointed out. Dr. Hawes could not foresee 
the time that the self-gumming plunger folding machines could turn out 
nearly the first number of envelopes per hour, nor could Dr. Hawes, 
feeling that his machine had reached this maximum product, foresee 
that a half-century later more envelopes would be manufactured in 
Worcester than in any other city in the world. In 1857 Dr. Hawes sold 
his business to Hartshorn and Trumbull, who in the early sixties was 
succeeded by Trumbull, Waters and Company, in 1866 by Hill,_ Devoe 
and Company, in 1892 by the W. H. Hill Envelope Company, and in 1898 
by the W. H. Hill Envelope Company, Division United States Envelope 
Company. 

Many other inventions were made by Dr. Hawes, among them a print- 
ing-press, a wrygler used in woollen manufacture, a machine for making 
paper bags and one for the printing of wall-paper. His inventions and 
improvements had a marked influence on the industries of Worcester, 
and from them he amassed what was then considered a. large fortune. 
During the later years of his life Dr. Hawes took an active part in the 

65 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

public affairs of Worcester where he engaged in woollen manufacture. 
His health failed in 1867 and he went abroad. His death occurred in 
Nice, France, February 20, 1867. 

"He had two qualities," says one tribute to his genius, "which are 
seldom given by God to the same man, the mechanical head and the 
financial instinct," — a genius that appears to be typical of Worcester 
County, for it is said more remunerative inventions have been made 
here than in any other county in the United States. 



GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR 

Senator of the United States, 1877-1904 
iSj6~ioo4 

For more than half a century George Frisbie Hoar lived in Worcester, 
where he began the practice of law and achieved fame in his profession. 
For many years he was at the head of the bar in Worcester County. 
Worcester was his chosen home, but Concord, Massachusetts, where he 
was born, August 29, 1826, was ever a dear spot to him. 

"My grandfather," he was wont to say, "and two great-grandfathers 
and three of my father's uncles were at Concord in the Lincoln company, 
of which my grandfather, Samuel Hoar, whom I well remember, was 
Lieutenant, on the 19th of April, 1775." His mother, then a child, sat 
on the knees of Washington, and her father, Roger Sherman, is said to be 
the only American whose name was signed to the four great state papers: 
the Association of 1774, the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of 
Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. Said the 
philosopher of Concord, "We are quotations from our ancestors." Such 
was George Frisbie Hoar! His life is well set forth in the inscription on 
one side of the pedestal of his statue which stands to-day on the green 
in front of the City Hall at Worcester: — 

"I believe in God, the living God, in the American people, a free and 
brave people, who do not bow the neck or bend the knee to any other, 
and who desire no other to bow the neck or bend the knee to them. I 
believe that liberty, good government, free institutions, cannot be given 
by any one people to any other, but must be wrought out for each by 
itself, slowly, painfully, in the process of years or centuries, as the oak 
adds ring to ring. I believe that, whatever clouds may darken the horizon, 
the world is growing better, that to-day is better than yesterday, and 
to-morrow will be better than to-day." 

It has been said that the youth of George Frisbie Hoar gave promise 
of no great things. He was reared in an atmosphere of culture, and was 
neither spoiled by luxury nor embittered by poverty. He was gradu- 
ated from Harvard University, admitted to the bar, and in 1847 cast his 
first vote for the Whig candidate for Governor. Three years later, when 
the Free Soil party, afterwards the Republican Party, was in its infancy, 
Mr. Hoar made his first speech in the City Hall at Worcester in its sup- 
port, and later, during his service in the Massachusetts Legislature, acted 
as a leader of the cause. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives in 1852, a member of the Massachusetts Senate 
in 1857; City Solicitor of Worcester in i860; member of the United 
States House of Representatives in 1869, serving until 1877, when he 

66 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

was elected Senator of the United States — a service which he gave from 
the year of his election until his death in 1904. 

Senator Hoar was a great lawyer, a great orator, and a great debater. 
His speeches are masterpieces of English. His humor is subtle; the spir- 
itual touch in everything that he said and did was always apparent. He 
was saturated with the classics. On being asked how to study oratory. 
Senator Hoar responded, "Read the Greek orations." His own speeches 
show how great an influence the classics had in the formation of his style 
of expression. "Sir," said a contemporary, "Massachusetts has never 
been more powerfully represented in the Senate, not even in the time of 
Daniel Webster, than by Mr. Hoar." 



GEORGE CROMPTON 

1 nventor 
1S2Q-S6 

George Crompton was fortunate in inheriting from his father an in- 
ventive genius — a gift that he used to advantage in perfecting the loom 
invented by William Crompton, who, after pursuing his manufacturing 
interests for several years, succumbed to a fatal malady and left his son 
George, then nearly of age, to carry on the business. Mr. Crompton was 
born in England, March 23, 1829. He came to America at the age of 
ten years, attended private schools, and completed his education at 
Millbury Academy. A year after the elder Crompton came to America 
he invented his famous loom in response to the needs of his employers at 
Taunton, where he was asked to weave certain patterns in 1837, and while 
he never manufactured the loom himself, the right to do so was sold to 
a firm, and the looms were successfully introduced throughout the coun- 
try into cotton manufactories. This when improved by the younger 
Crompton was the first loom upon which fancy cashmeres were woven by 
power. The latest models are the fastest looms built, and on them light 
fabrics are woven at great speed. 

After having had some experience as a book-keeper, salesman, and 
maker of pistols, George Crompton went to Washington and secured an 
extension of his father's patent. Owing to his father's failure he was 
without capital, but he returned to Worcester and with Merrill E. Fur- 
bush began to manufacture looms. Just as the business began to pros- 
per, the fire of 1854 destroyed the buildings and swept away all of Mr. 
Crompton's property. He was advised at this time to go into bank- 
ruptcy, but this he refused to do, and going personally to every creditor 
he asked for an extension of time, which was given him. He began 
again, having previously dissolved his partnership. The Civil War broke 
out, and his business suffered. Temporarily he returned to the manu- 
facture of pistols. At this time his inventive genius asserted itself, and 
the crude invention made by his father was gone over, perfected, and 
suited to the highest needs of fancy cashmere weaving. Mr. Crompton 
took out during his lifetime two hundred and twelve patents in America 
and foreign countries. 

Reverses again came to the Crompton Company during the panic of 
1877, but Mr. Crompton placed his entire fortune at the disposal of the 
firm during its embarrassment. He was devoted to the public interests 

67 




I. Stephen Salisbury, 3rd. 
2. William Huntington 3. Alice Morse Earle 



FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

of Worcester, and served the city in several capacities. His death oc- 
curred in Worcester, December 29, 1886. At the time of his death he 
was the sole owner of the Crompton Loom Works, the largest employer 
of labor, and the possessor of one of the largest properties in the city. 
Mr. Crompton's exactitude in financial matters has been frequently the 
subject of comment. "During his earlier business years," says his 
biographer, "he once found pay-day approaching and no funds to meet 
it. He at once started on a collecting tour. The evening before pay-day 
found him with money in his pocket, but on the wrong side of the Con- 
necticut River, swollen with a spring freshet and filled with large cakes of 
ice, and no bridge in the neighborhood upon which to cross. He hunted 
until he found a boatman with a small boat, who was willing to risk his 
life for an adequate compensation, and the two started across the river. 
It was several hours before they landed on the opposite shore, at a long 
distance below the starting-point, and completely wet through, but Mr. 
Crompton's men were paid before night on their regular pay-day.'' 

The amalgamation of the Crompton Loom Works and the Knowles 
Loom Works did not take place until 1897, when the combined estab- 
lishments were given the name of the Crompton and Knowles Loom 
Works. Improvements since the granting of the first patents to Messrs. 
Crompton and Knowles had been constantly made, and their names have 
been synonymous with the developments of the art of weaving in America. 
The corporation to-day is the largest of its kind in the world. 

STEPHEN SALISBURY, 3d 

Philanthropist 
1835-1905 

Stephen Salisbury, 3d, left almost the whole of his large_ estate to 
Worcester. There was scarcely an educational or charitable institution 
that was not remembered by him. Out of his estate valued at ^5,000,000 
he left $3,000,000 to the Art Museum; the old Salisbury estate was left 
to the American Antiquarian Society, with his library and a fund of 
$200,000; he remembered the Polytechnic Institute, Clark University, 
the Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard University, and the Soci- 
ety of Antiquity. Salisbury Pond surrounded by Institute Park remains 
a beautiful memorial of the benefactor of Worcester. 

Mr. Salisbury was the third to bear that name. The first Stephen 
Salisburv, of the commercial house of Samuel and Stephen Salisbury, was 
a leading importer of Boston. He came to Worcester shortly before the 
Revolution, and in 1772 built on Lincoln Square the house to-day known 
as the old Salisburv Mansion. He took a prominent part in the affairs 
of the town. His son, Stephen Salisbury, 2d, built a mansion on High- 
land Street, and, like his distinguished father, was interested in every- 
thing that pertained to the welfare of Worcester. He served as president 
of the Old Worcester Bank until 1884, when his son, Stephen Salisbury, 
3d, succeeded him, holding that office until his death. Stephen Salis- 
bury, 3d, was the last of his family. . o tj 

The subject of this sketch was born in Worcester, March 31, 1835. He 
was graduated from Harvard University in the class of 1856 and shortly 
afterwards went to Europe, where he studied at various universities tor 
two years. In 1858 he returned to Worcester and studied law, later 



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FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

attending the Harvard Law School, where in 1861 he was given the de- 
gree of LL.B. He was admitted to the bar in October of that year. 
Mr. Salisbury's wealth made it possible for him to devote much time to 
special subjects that commanded his interest, and throughout his long 
and active life he made special research and travelled extensively in 
search of information that he desired. With his large and varied inter- 
ests he constantly had the welfare of Worcester in mind. In 1863 he 
became a director of the State Mutual Life Insurance Company; he 
served as a director of the Old Worcester Bank prior to his election to 
the presidency; he served as a member of the board of investment and 
later as president of the Worcester County Institution for Savings — an 
institution of which his father had been president. He was a director 
of the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester, and of the Boston, Barre and 
Gardner railroads until their absorption by the Boston and Maine and 
the Fitchburg Companies. He was a trustee of the Worcester City 
Hospital and of the W'ashburn Memorial Hospital. His connection with 
the Worcester Polytechnic Institute is well known, as is that of the elder 
Salisbury, who was interested in the founding of the institution and who 
served as its first president. Clark University also commanded the 
interest of father and son. Mr. Salisbury was a member of the American 
Antiquarian Society and its president from 1887 until his death. To 
the transactions of the Society he contributed many valuable papers re- 
lating to his researches in various parts of the world. He was a member 
of the American Geographic Society, president of the Peabody Museum 
of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, and of many foreign societies. He served 
his city and the Commonwealth in innumerable ways. In spite of his 
large fortune he lived simply, and was ever the modest courtly gentleman, 
who deferred to the opinions of others and treated his associates with 
the kindest attention. The difficult role assigned to him he played well, 
and the beneficence that he bestowed on Worcester was always given 
without ostentation. 

"Calm; reserved; equable in temperament; not over-confident in 
himself, yet not easily swerved from an opinion which he conceived to 
be well founded; courteous in bearing; dignified in deportment; never 
self-asserting and never acting with a view to secure popular approval; 
loyal in friendship, but not demonstrative; Stephen Salisbury passed 
through life making hosts of friends, among whom there were but few, 
however, who could claim that this friendship was intimate." This is 
but one tribute to Stephen Salisbury. 

Mr. Salisbury's death occurred in Worcester on November 16, 1905, 
in the seventieth year of his age. 



WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON 

Episcopal Clergyman 

William Reed Huntington was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Sep- 
tember 20, 1838. He was graduated from Harvard University in 1859, 
and after serving as assistant rector at Emmanuel Church in Boston, 
came to Worcester in 1862 where he was ordained. All Saints' of which 
he became rector was then a small parish, but under the guidance of the 

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FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

enthusiastic young rector it increased in size and influence. He attracted 
attention abroad, but call after call was declined, and he still continued 
to set himself to the task that he had resolved to do, namely, to 
establish All Saints' Church on a firm basis, and to surround it by four 
other churches: St. Matthew's, St. Mark's, St. Luke's, and St. John's. 

"This," says his biographer, "was his dream, a hopeless one it then 
seemed, especially when the little wooden church of All Saints' was 
destroyed by fire. But nothing could weaken his energy and he at once 
set himself to the work of building the new All Saints' as it is to-day. 
In spite of the anxiety of building without sufficient funds his spirit and 
energy never seemed to fail." His love for Worcester has been frequently 
the subject of comment. Indeed, he once said that its attractions lay 
not alone in the literary or social life, but in the natural beauty of the 
surroundings — a miniature New England, as it were, where every kind of 
character might be found, and where conditions were such that every 
kind of problem might be worked out. 

St. Matthew's, St. Mark's, St. Luke's, and St. John's, as though in a 
realization of Dr. Huntington's dream, grew up around All Saints'. Dr. 
Huntington's work called him, after a year of travel, to Grace Church 
in New York City. Here he became rector in 1883, succeeding Bishop 
Potter, in one of the largest and most important parishes of New York. 
During his incumbency the charitable work done in the parish was greatly 
increased, a mission house and deaconesses' home were built, and the 
group of buildings called Grace Chapel Settlement was erected. Dr. 
Huntington also devoted many years to the movement for the liturgical 
revision that resulted in the Standard Prayer Book published in 1892. 
Many honors came to him. He received the degree of D.D. from Colum- 
bia, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale Universities; D.C.L. from the Univer- 
sity of the South; L.H.D. from Hobart College; and LL.D. from Union 
College. 

Dr. Huntington never forgot his Worcester associates, and one of his 
last messages concerned them. "Give a special message of good-bye," 
he said, "to my dear friends at Worcester, and let every attention be paid 
to them at my funeral service." His death occurred July 26, 1909, at 
Nahant, Massachusetts. 



ALICE MORSE EARLE 

Author 

The tithingman of the Puritan New England Sabbath plays an impor- 
tant part in the literary career of Alice Morse Earle, for he was the sub- 
ject of her first story. Much of the information that she gleaned con- 
cerning him was given by her father, who was wont in the family circle 
to recall the offices of this Puritan dignitary, who had presided over the 
congregation even in Mr. Morse's boyhood. Alice Morse was born 
April 27, 1 85 1. After having been graduated from the Worcester High 
School and Dr. Gannett's School in Boston, she returned to her home in 
Worcester, and at the age of twenty-two married Henry Earle of Brooklyn, 
New York. Of Mrs. Earle's four children, three survive her. Her sister, 

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FORTY IMMORTALS of WORCESTER & ITS COUNTY 

Miss Frances Clary Morse, well-known collector, and author of "Furni- 
ture of the Olden Time," resides at the Morse home in Worcester. 

After one of Mrs. Earle's frequent talks with her father concerning 
early New England customs, she wrote her first story, "The Sabbath in 
Puritan New England." Without the knowledge of her family she sent 
the story to the Youth's Companion, and almost immediately received a 
substantial check for it. After its publication she enlarged on the sub- 
ject, sent her new story to the Atlantic Monthly, and received a check for 
$ioo. Once more Mrs. Earle enlarged on her subject, and in 1891 sent 
her first book ("The Sabbath in Puritan New England") to Scribner's 
where it was accepted, published, and had the largest sale of any book 
published that year. All of these efforts Mrs. Earle made on her own 
behalf. She was a pioneer in the study of social and domestic life in 
Colonial New England. She was one who carefully blazed her trail and 
who did an enormous amount of research work in the preparation of each 
volume. A complete list of her works may be of interest from both a 
reader's and a collector's viewpoint, especially in so far as the writer 
knows of no such published list, those that have appeared being more or 
less incomplete: "The Sabbath in Puritan New England" (1891), 
"China-collecting in America" (1892), "Customs and Fashions in Old 
New England" (1893), "Diary of a Boston School Girl," written by 
Anna Green Winslow, edited by Mrs. Earle (1894), "Costume of Colonial 
Times" (1894), "Margaret Winthrop" (1895), "Colonial Dames and 
Good-Wives" (1895), "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days" (1896), 
"Colonial Days in Old New York" (1896), "In Old Narragansett" 
(1896), "Home Life in Colonial Days" (1898), "Child Life in Colonial 
Days" (1899), "Stage Coach and Tavern Days" (1900), "Old-time 
Gardens" (1902), "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday" (1902), "Two 
Centuries of Costume in America" (1903), "Essay on Modern Garden- 
ing," by Horace Walpole, edited with introductory note by Mrs. Earle 

(1904)- 

Mrs. Earle and her sister Miss Morse on their third trip to Egypt in 

1909 were passengers on the Republic when it was cut in two in lanuary 
of that year. Owing to the shock sustained from the wreck, Mrs. Earle 
suffered a nervous breakdown. Her death occurred on Long Island, 
February 16, 191 1. It is generally conceded that her loveliest book is 
"Old-time Gardens," which contains such attractive chapter-heads as 
"Colonial Garden-making," "In Lilac Time," "Old Flower Favorites," 
"The Charm of Color," "Meetin' Seed and Sabbath Day Posies," "Sun- 
dials," "A Moonlight Garden," "Flowers of Alystery and Roses of Yes- 
terday." 



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